Homo sapiens

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New Fossils Reveal More Human Species

Early human evolution was more crowded than we thought: Leakeys

(Newser) - The discovery of three new fossils, unveiled today, illuminate and confirm a line of human evolution that is more complicated than scientists once thought. The groundbreaking bones, about 2 million years old and unearthed in Kenya, prove that there were at least two Homo species—in addition to Homo erectus—...

Signs Found of Mysterious Neanderthal 'Sister Species'

Evidence lives on in the DNA of modern-day Africans: scientists

(Newser) - Newly discovered bits of "foreign DNA" in modern Africans indicate that a mysterious "sister species" may have walked the earth with Neanderthals and humans, according to scientists. The DNA doesn't resemble DNA from any modern-day humans, nor from Neanderthals, whose DNA sometimes shows up in modern-day Europeans....

First-Ever Neanderthal Paintings Discovered

Nerja caves in Spain contain art that pre-dates Homo sapiens

(Newser) - Cave paintings in Spain may be the oldest ever found and the first known by Neanderthal artists, New Scientist reports. Oddly resembling a DNA double helix, the paintings actually depict seals—which locals in Malaga, Spain, would have eaten at the time. Charcoal remains near the paintings, in Spain's...

DNA Unlocks Secret of Early Humans

Homo sapiens may have gone to India first

(Newser) - Early humans may not have journeyed north out of Africa after all. Instead, DNA experts say, they built boats about 60,000 years ago and floated their way from East Africa over to India. That and other interesting tidbits are emerging from a DNA study called the Genographic Project, the...

Artist's Studio From 100000 BC Unearthed

Primitive paint workshop is evidence of early abstract thinking

(Newser) - Around 100,000 years ago, people were already mixing paint, using it to decorate objects and themselves and even storing it, say researchers in South Africa. A cave on the country's Indian Ocean coast has yielded what researchers believe is an ancient artist's studio, where tools were used...

'Human Invasion' Killed Off Neanderthals

Modern humans crowded Neanderthals out of Europe, study says

(Newser) - Modern humans may have ended the Neanderthals' 300,000-year dominance of Europe through sheer numbers instead of brain power, a new study claims. The researchers say the "human invasion" 40,000 years ago left the Neanderthals outnumbered 10 to 1 by the newcomers, forcing them into fierce competition for...

Earliest Human Remains Discovered in Israel: Team

Researchers say 400,000-year-old teeth could rewrite human history

(Newser) - Modern man may have emerged from Israel, not Africa, as is commonly believed, according to a discovery by Tel Aviv University archaeologists. Researchers believe they found 400,000-year-old Homo sapiens teeth in a cave in central Israel—that's twice as old as the oldest modern human remains currently known, reports...

Early Man Survived By Growing Up Slowly

It's how we outsmarted the Neanderthals

(Newser) - Immaturity may be the key to the human race’s dominance. Neanderthals have brains roughly the same size as early humans, and their tools were just as good, so scientists have long puzzled over how Homo sapiens became the top primates on the block. Now, some scientists think they have...

Skull Find Shakes Up Theories on Early Humanity

Remains found in Georgia suggest mankind's evolution had Eurasian chapter

(Newser) - Theories of human evolution have been thrown into disarray by ancient human remains found in Georgia, the Independent reports. The skulls, unearthed near Tbilisi, are from 1.8 million years ago, 800,000 years before modern humanity's ancestors were believed to have first moved out of Africa. The find, scientists...

Earliest Humans Played Flute 35,000 Years Ago

It was found in same caves as fertility statue

(Newser) - A vulture-bone flute found in a cave in southwest Germany proves that homo sapiens have been rocking out for at least 35,000 years, archaeologists say. It’s the most complete musical instrument found in a region full of relics like busty carvings and ivory flutes, the New York Times...

They Weren't Such 'Neanderthals'

Early man brighter than suspected, researchers find

(Newser) - Neanderthals were just as smart as their stone-age rivals, the latest research into the roots of mankind concludes. Scientific teams who learned how to make and use Neanderthal tools found their technology just as efficient as that used by Homo sapiens, reports the Independent. The study runs counter to theories...

Female Hunters May Have Doomed Neanderthals

Study says feminist practices put the 'reproductive core' in harm's way

(Newser) - "Stone Age feminism" may have contributed to the Neanderthals' extinction, says a recent study, which uses archaeological evidence to argue that Neanderthal females hunted—and were "stomped, gored, and worse"—alongside males. Pitting the "reproductive core" of a population that never topped 10,000 against giant...

Kenyan Fossil Rattles Human Family Tree

Skull suggests two precursors were actually concurrent

(Newser) - Two of our ancestors apparently lived alongside each other in Africa rather than evolving from one to the next on the path to Homo sapiens, as scientists once believed. National Geographic reports that a Homo habilis skull dug up in Kenya is surprisingly young, making its 1.4 million-year-old owner...

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