Human Prehistory

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19 Stories

September 2008
- Alps Artifacts Offer Clues to Climate Change
  
  AFP | Sep 6, 08 10:48 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A melting glacier in the Swiss Alps has revealed hundreds of ancient artifacts, providing valuable information about both history and climate change through the ages, AFP reports. The area was walkable only during warm periods when the glacier receded. “The site itself is the most important find because we have this correlation between climate change and archaeological objects,” says a researcher. More »
August 2008
- Sahara Yields Ancient Cemetery
  
  National Geographic | Aug 15, 08 2:13 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Explorers hunting for dinosaur bones have found a Stone Age cemetery deep in the Sahara desert, National Geographic reports. The team of paleontologists discovered bones from two separate ancient human cultures that lived in the region as long as 10,000 years ago, when monsoon rains turned parts of the desert lush and green. More »
- Did We Slaughter the Neanderthals?
  
  Independent (UK) | Aug 8, 08 8:20 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Analysis of DNA from a thigh bone is helping solve the longstanding question of what happened to Neanderthals. Did they simply die off, were they killed by more modern humans—or did the two groups interbreed? DNA from the Neanderthal bone is so different from that of modern humans that interbreeding now appears highly unlikely, the Independent reports, making it likely that our ancestors were to blame. More »
April 2008
- Tyrannosaurus Rex: Tastes Like Chicken?
  
  Washington Post | Apr 24, 08 8:01 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than reptiles, protein extracted from a Tyrannosaurus rex bone suggests. T. rex collagen, the main protein in bones, is similar to chicken and ostrich collagen but much different than material from alligators and lizards, scientists say. The findings could remap the evolutionary tree according to molecular data rather than bone structure, the Washington Post reports. More »
March 2008
- New Fossil Rocks Human History
  
  Bloomberg | Mar 27, 08 8:05 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - An incredibly old jawbone discovered in a Spanish cave could rewrite human history, scientists say. The bone with teeth is 1.2 million years old and belongs to a long-extinct human ancestor called Homo antecessor. It's at least 300,000 years older than any other human fossil found in Europe. The discovery, along with stone tools and animal bones at the site, suggests that early humans colonized Europe much earlier than thought, Bloomberg reports. More »
- 'Hobbits' Were Just Short on Food: Scientists
  
  BBC | Mar 5, 08 2:00 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - In a new volley in the back and forth over whether "hobbit" fossils found on an Indonesian island were a separate species, a research team says the remains are those of modern humans suffering from malnutrition-induced dwarfism. Iodine deficiency during pregnancy can result in humans growing less than 3 feet tall—and looking similar to the fossils found in Indonesia, the BBC reports. More »
February 2008
- Ancient Plaza Found in Peru
  
  Reuters | Feb 26, 08 1:50 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed one of the oldest structures in the Americas, Reuters reports. Carbon dating indicates the ceremonial plaza in Casma is 5,500 years old, scientists at the dig say. That's 500 years older than the nearby ancient citadel of Caral, previously thought be Peru’s oldest ruins. "It's an impressive find," said the project's supervisor. More »
November 2007
- Noah's Flood Transformed Agriculture
  
  Reuters | Nov 19, 07 10:33 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - The real-life inspiration for the biblical flood may have been responsible for the widespread adoption of agriculture in Europe, according to a new study. About 8,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, ice sheets melted, causing massive flooding in the Black Sea basin. That forced farmers to disperse, and they migrated to new areas where people still relied on hunting and gathering. More »
- In Georgia, a missing link? Remarkable finds are changing beliefs about human evolution and migration from Africa
  
  Chicago Tribune | Nov 18, 07
  
  The forested bluff that overlooks this sleepy Georgian hamlet seems an unlikely portal into the mysteries surrounding the dawn of man. Think human evolution, and one conjures up the wind-swept savannas and badlands of East Africa's Great Rift Valley. Georgians may claim their ancestors made Georgia the cradle of wine 8,000 years ago, but the cradle of mankind lies 3,300 miles away, at Tanzania's famed Olduvai Gorge. But it is here in the verdant uplands of southern Georgia that David Lordkipanidze, a paleoanthropologist, has been unearthing one of the largest and most significant troves of...
October 2007
- Me Caveman, Me Talk
  
  LiveScience | Oct 19, 07 5:20 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Neanderthals may have spoken much like we do, new research shows. Scientists examined a gene linked to language called FOXP2 in the DNA of cavemen bones discovered in northern Spain, and found that it was identical to ours. The gene is the only one known to be involved in human speech and language, though the lead researcher cautioned that others play a role. More »
- 'Europe's oldest city' is found
  
  Independent (UK) | Oct 9, 07
  
  Archaeologists in Spain's southern port of Cadiz believe they have found remains which prove that it is Europe's oldest inhabited city %u2013 Phoenician Gadir, or Gades in Roman times. Remnants of walls have emerged seven metres deep in a dig beneath Cadiz's old town centre which have been dated to the 8th century BC. Scientists found shards of Phoenician pottery, and pieces of jars, bowls and plates once used in everyday life which all point towards the existence of a town. A well-preserved bronze brooch has also appeared, suggesting a high level of civilisation. Previous finds, including funeral...
- 9,300-Year-Old Bones Shouldn't Be Buried
  
  National Review | Oct 8, 07 6:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Senate Indian Affairs Committee has made a two-word correction to federal law that jeopardizes the study of pre-Columbian history, National Review's editors argue. The 9,300-year-old bones known as Kennewick Man—featured on a Time cover after they were unearthed in 1996—are the subject of a dispute between scientists who want to study them and a coalition of Pacific Northwest tribes that wants to bury them. More »
September 2007
- 'Hobbits' Were, Indeed, a Different Kind of Human
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Sep 21, 07 1:30 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A new study of three wrist bones from an 18,000-year-old fossil shows that the so-called hobbits of Indonesia were, indeed, a separate human species. When the bones were discovered in 2003, scientists trumpeted the find as evidence of a smaller species, Homo floresiensis. But skeptics argued that the hobbit, at 3 feet tall with a brain the size of a grapefruit, was in fact a human afflicted by microcephaly, a brain-shrinking disorder. More »
- New Georgian Fossils May Link 'Lucy' and Homo Erectus
  
  New York Times | Sep 20, 07 6:57 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Archaeologists have unearthed four fossilized skeletons of a human ancestor that shares characteristics with the humanesque Homo erectus and the earlier, smaller Australopithicus afarensis, of which the famous 'Lucy' skeleton is a member. The fossils in the republic of Georgia contradict the previously held idea that hominids developed all key human attributes before emigrating from Africa, the NY Times reports. More »
- What's Baby Got That Chimps Don't?
  
  Time | Sep 7, 07 12:05 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - What makes humans smarter than their primate relatives? Into the ongoing debate comes a new study that concludes it's not just size, it's the particular kind of computing power. A study matching human toddlers with chimps and orangutans compared their performance on a battery of different kinds of tasks. The children were no better at "physical learning" —i.e. finding hidden objects—but miles ahead in "social learning." More »
June 2007
- Oldest European Human Fossil Discovered
  
  BBC | Jun 30, 07 10:51 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A million-year-old tooth belonging to a distant human ancestor has been unearthed in northern Spain, the BBC reports. Scientists touted the pre-molar as western Europe’s “oldest human fossil remain” by more than 200,000 years. The tooth was found Wednesday at the Atapuerca site, where caves have already yielded evidence of prehistoric human occupation. More »
- Early Immunity to Chimp Virus Leaves Humans Open to HIV
  
  Scientific American | Jun 22, 07 10:36 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Humans are more susceptible to HIV than other primates because our ancestors evolved a protein that could fight off a different retrovirus that infected chimps, says Scientific American . The most conspicuous difference between the chimpanzee genome sequenced in 2005 and the human one, says a Seattle virologist, was 130 copies of a retrovirus that inserted its DNA into cells, as HIV does today. <

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Alps Artifacts Offer Clues to Climate Change

Sahara Yields Ancient Cemetery

Did We Slaughter the Neanderthals?

Tyrannosaurus Rex: Tastes Like Chicken?

New Fossil Rocks Human History

'Hobbits' Were Just Short on Food: Scientists

Ancient Plaza Found in Peru

Noah's Flood Transformed Agriculture

In Georgia, a missing link? Remarkable finds are changing beliefs about human evolution and migration from Africa

Me Caveman, Me Talk

'Europe's oldest city' is found

9,300-Year-Old Bones Shouldn't Be Buried

'Hobbits' Were, Indeed, a Different Kind of Human

New Georgian Fossils May Link 'Lucy' and Homo Erectus

What's Baby Got That Chimps Don't?

Oldest European Human Fossil Discovered

Early Immunity to Chimp Virus Leaves Humans Open to HIV