Japanese Archipelago Was Once a Refuge for Cave Lions
Between 73,000 and 20,000 years ago (Late Pleistocene), the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited by cave lions (Panthera spelaea),…
Giant Pythons Once Lived in Taiwan
A fossil trunk vertebra from the Chiting Formation of Taiwan reveals that nearly 4-m-long pythons roamed the island…
China’s Xigou Site Yields Evidence of Advanced Stone Tool Technology
Technological innovations in Africa and Western Europe in the later part of the Middle Pleistocene signal the behavioral…
Pleistocene-Age Fossils Reveal Hopping Wasn’t Just for Small Kangaroos
New research by paleontologists from the University of Bristol, the University of Manchester and the University of Melbourne…
Fossil Shorebirds Tell New Story about Climate Change in Australia
Shorebirds are widespread birds whose dependence on coastal and wetland environments makes them effective paleoenvironmental indicators. Wading shorebirds…
Enigmatic Hominins May Have Overlapped with Homo sapiens on Sulawesi
At Leang Bulu Bettue, a rock-shelter in the Maros-Pangkep karst region on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, paleoanthropologists…
45,000-Year-Old Crimean Neanderthal Reveals Long-Distance Connections across Eurasia
The Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine contains key Middle to Upper Paleolithic transitional archaeological sites, including the site of…
Lead Exposure May Have Influenced Evolution of Human Brain, Behavior, and Development of Language
Several hominids — Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus, early Homo sp., Gigantopithecus blacki, Pongo sp., Papio sp., Homo neanderthalensis,…
Ancient hominin Paranthropus boisei had human-like grip and may have used tools, fossil study reveals
A recently analyzed set of 1.5-million-year-old Kenyan fossils has provided the most complete view yet of the anatomy…
Mastodons were Far More Genetically Diverse than Previously Known, Ancient DNA Shows
Ancient DNA has been useful in reconciling deep evolutionary relationships and responses to ecological changes in elephants and…