As several Neandertal genomes of high quality are now available researchers can identify genetic changes that were present in many or all Neandertals, investigate their physiological effects and look into their consequences when they occur in people today.
In 1988, archaeologists from the RAS Institute for the History of Material Culture discovered a unique Scythian burial mound dating from the seventh century B.C. In one of the coffins, they found what was long believed to be the mummified remains of a teenage warrior boy buried with his weapons. According to cutting-edge DNA analysi by researchers from the Historical Genetics Lab at MIPT, the body actually belongs to a female, confirming Herodotus’ 2,500-year-old accounts of the Amazons, previously considered mythical.
A new method for estimating the biological sex of human remains based on reading protein sequences rather than DNA has been used to study an archaeological site in Northern California.
Thousands of years ago the UK was physically joined to the rest of Europe through an area known as Doggerland. However, a marine inundation took place during the mid-holocene, separating the British landmass from the rest of Europe, which is now covered by the North Sea.
New research from Washington University in St. Louis provides evidence that Indigenous people continued to live in southeastern U.S. and actively resist European influence for nearly 150 years after the arrival of Spanish explorers in the 1500s.
Ten per cent of those who took part in the group's protests in April 2019 were first-time demonstrators, twice the proportion of "novices" at climate marches a decade before.
In the 1600s, two private chapels were erected as family burial sites for two noble families. One in the town Svendborg in Denmark, the other in Montella, Italy.
A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE finds graying hair is not indicative of a chimpanzee’s age.
he cold, famine and unrest in ancient Rome and Egypt after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE has long been shrouded in mystery.
A team of underwater cave explorers in Mexico have made unprecedented archeological discoveries in some of the most inaccessible places on Earth that unlock key mysteries about the earliest inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, according to international experts who have studied the sites.
Mercury, algae made water undrinkable in heart of city
More than ten years ago, large geometric earthworks found in the southwestern parts of the Amazon, called geoglyphs, were reported in the global scientific news.
Dolphins use unusual techniques to obtain food: One of them, called "shelling", is used by the dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia. Dolphins in this population trap fishes inside large empty gastropod shells.
The Ik, a small ethnic group in Uganda, are not incredibly selfish and mean as portrayed in a 1972 book by a prominent anthropologist, according to a Rutgers-led study. Instead, the Ik are quite cooperative and generous with one another, and their culture features many traits that encourage generosity.
The assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March in 44 B.C.E. triggered a 17-year power struggle that ultimately ended the Roman Republic leading to the rise of the Roman Empire.
The researchers extracted the DNA from bone powder and sequenced it to high quality. They estimate that the female Neandertal lived 60,000-80,000 years ago.
North America had the T. rex, South America had the Giganotosaurus and Africa the Spinosaurus - now evidence shows Australia had gigantic predatory dinosaurs.
Poring over decades of existing research, University of Rhode Island Professor Holly Dunsworth has reevaluated and rewritten the narrow, reigning theories for sex differences in height and pelvic width in a new paper, “Expanding the evolutionary explanations for sex differences in the human skeleton.” The paper, published online by the journal Evolutionary Anthropology, maps out the critical role of estrogen production on bone growth in men and women.
Walls are used as political tools to accentuate divisions between people, according to a new book co-edited by a faculty member at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Integrating radiocarbon dating and microarchaeology techniques has enabled more precise dating of the ancient Wilson’s Arch monument at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, according to a study published June 3, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Johanna Regev from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and colleagues.
A three-year study by SUNY Geneseo anthropologists shows that driver licensing restrictions led to increased social isolation and health risks for immigrant agricultural workers. The researchers identified factors that prevent immigrants from leaving farms where they work and the detrimental effects of isolation.
The collection of more than 25,000 fragments of ancient manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls include, among other ancient texts, the oldest copies of books of the Hebrew Bible. But finding a way to piece them all together in order to understand their meaning has remained an incredibly difficult puzzle, especially given that most pieces weren't excavated in an orderly fashion.
The Near East was a crossroad for the ancient world's greatest civilizations, and invasions over centuries caused enormous changes in cultures, religions and languages.
Different "Canaanite" people from the Bronze Age Southern Levant not only culturally, but also genetically resemble each other more than other populations. A team around Ron Pinhasi from the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology found in a recent study that their DNA is a mixture of two populations: The Chalcolithic Zagros and Early Bronze Age Caucasus. The results have been published in "Cell".
When it comes to the great civilizations of human history, the pen really might have been mightier than the sword.
A re-analysis of dinosaur skulls from northern Alaska suggests they belong to a genus that lived over a broad latitudinal range extending into the Arctic.
The great white shark is one of the most charismatic, but also one of the most infamous sharks.
Medical anthropologist Lisa Hardy knows a complex global problem like the coronavirus pandemic requires interdisciplinary solutions, so she put her experience in measuring community engagement and resilience to use collecting real-time data into what Americans are thinking. The nature of her work means that the results can be used in the country's ongoing response to the pandemic. She, faculty member Leah Mundell and grad students Kayla Torres and Kevin Shaw also are the U.S. partners in an international research project looking at these questions worldwide.
Climate scientists from the IBS Center for Climate Physics discover that, contrary to previously held beliefs, Neanderthal extinction was neither caused by abrupt glacial climate shifts, nor by interbreeding with Homo sapiens.
As unemployment rates skyrocket around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a world-first study has found social venture start-ups not only alleviate social problems but also are much more important for job creation than previously thought.
A major global cooling event that occurred 4,200 years ago may have led to the evolution of new rice varieties and the spread of rice into both northern and southern Asia, an international team of researchers has found.
Human self-control evolved in our early ancestors, becoming particularly evident around 500,000 years ago when they developed the skills to make sophisticated tools, a new study suggests.
Blade-like tools and animal tooth pendants previously discovered in Europe, and once thought to possibly be the work of Neanderthals, are in fact the creation of Homo sapiens, or modern humans, who emigrated from Africa, finds a new analysis by an international team of researchers.
After analysing organic residues from ancient pots, a team of scientists led by the University of Bristol has uncovered new evidence of dairying by hunter-gatherers in the landlocked South African country of Lesotho in the mid-late first millennium AD.
An international team of researchers including the University of Adelaide, has completed the first large-scale study of DNA belonging to ancient humans of the central Andes in South America and found early genetic differences between groups of nearby regions, and surprising genetic continuity over thousands of years. In the study, published in the journal Cell, researchers analysed the DNA of 89 ancient humans who lived in the central Andes between 500 and 9,000 years ago, and compared it with the genetic diversity of present day occupants, to shed light on the genetic changes over time.
If life feels more stressful now than it did a few decades ago, you're not alone. Even before the novel coronavirus started sweeping the globe, a new study found that life may be more stressful now than it was in the 1990s.
Scientists have discovered the world's oldest known example of a squid-like creature attacking its prey, in a fossil dating back almost 200 million years.
An international research team has conducted the first in-depth, wide-scale study of the genomic history of ancient civilizations in the central Andes mountains and coast before European contact. The findings reveal early genetic distinctions between groups in nearby regions, population mixing within and beyond the Andes, surprising genetic continuity amid cultural upheaval, and ancestral cosmopolitanism among some of the region's most well-known ancient civilizations.
A multidisciplinary research group coordinated by the University of Helsinki dated the bones of dozens of Iron Age residents of the Levänluhta site in Finland, and studied the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios.
High-altitude adaptations in the Himalayas may lower risk for some chronic diseases, according to a research team including faculty from Binghamton University, State University of New York, the University of New Mexico, and the Fudan University School of Life Sciences.
Hunter-gatherer groups living in the Baltic between seven and a half and six thousand years ago had culturally distinct cuisines, analysis of ancient pottery fragments has revealed.
Genetic research throughout Europe shows evidence of drastic population changes near the end of the Neolithic period, as shown by the arrival of ancestry related to pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe.
The archaeological record is littered with feces, a potential goldmine for insights into ancient health and diet, parasite evolution, and the ecology and evolution of the microbiome.
Recovery. Reentry. Reopen. Return. A new normal. Faculty experts at DePaul University are available for news media interviews about what comes next — after the COVID-19 pandemic. Does the world return to normal or will there be fundamental changes to how we live our lives, work, and travel; and how we are governed?
Animal milk was essential to east African herders at least 5,000 years ago, according to a new study. The research is important for understanding the history of milk drinking worldwide.
Researchers from Cambridge, UK, and Germany have reconstructed the early "evolutionary paths" of COVID-19 in humans - as infection spread from Wuhan out to Europe and North America - using genetic network techniques.
The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME), approximately 252 million years ago (Ma), caused a serious marine and terrestrial ecosystem crisis, and about 75% of terrestrial biological species disappeared. How long did it take for terrestrial ecosystems to recover?
A new study reinforces the concept that Neanderthal DNA has been woven into the modern human genome on multiple occasions as our ancestors met Neanderthals time and again in different parts of the world.
Using precise imaging technology to scan fossil skulls, researchers found that as early as 3 million years ago, children had a long dependence on caregivers.
A partial skeleton of Homo naledi represents a rare case of an immature individual, shedding light on the evolution of growth and development in human ancestry, according to a study published April 1, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Debra Bolter of Modesto Junior College in California and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and colleagues.
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