Ancient DNA Rewrites Story of Enigmatic ‘American Cheetah’
For several decades, paleontologists have described Miracinonyx trumani — an extinct species of cheetah-like felid that roamed the…
Paleontologists Identify New Species of Glyptodont
An incomplete fossilized skull that has sat in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Denmark since…
Scientists Find Traces of Two Unknown Archaic Hominins in Human DNA
New research led by the University of California, Berkeley reveals that beyond Neanderthals and Denisovans, humans interbred with…
224,000-Year-Old Homo Skull Fragment Adds New Mystery to Human Origins
A fossilized skull fragment of Homo sp. unearthed in central Spain offers paleoanthropologists a fresh window into the…
Fossils from Chinese Cave Fill Crucial Gap in History of Gigantopithecus blacki
Deep inside a limestone cave in southern China, paleontologists have uncovered an assemblage of thirteen fossilized teeth belonging…
Early humans used fire in Wonderwerk Cave up to 1.8 million years ago
New evidence from South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave suggests early humans were using fire inside caves far earlier than…
Payre fossil teeth reveal regional diversity among Europe’s earliest Neanderthals
A team led by the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana studied fossil teeth from the…
Scientists Reconstruct One of Oldest Known Neanderthal Communities
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from eight fossils found in Stajnia Cave in Poland reveals a tight-knit group of Neanderthals…
Neanderthals May Have Used Birch Tar as Natural Antibiotic
New experiments show that tar made from birch bark — long known as a tool adhesive — can…
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),…
Hidden Neanderthal skull reveals unexpected details about ancient nasal anatomy and climate adaptation
A Neanderthal skeleton, hidden deep in a limestone cave in southern Italy, has revealed a part of the…
Neanderthals’ Disappearance May Not Have Been from Extinction, Controversial New Study Argues
The disappearance of the Neanderthals—our archaic hominin cousins—remains one of the great unresolved riddles of ancient human history.…