Earliest Humans Put a Shrimp on the Barbie

Remnants of one of the earliest known human settlements, possibly the community from which all modern people are descended, have been discovered on the South African coast. The band of humans survived 164,000 years ago on cooked shellfish and the occasional whale, and wore red body paint, according to new research published in the journal Nature.

The community may be "the progenitor population" that survived the ice age and populated the planet, said the lead anthropologist.  Their use of red ochre as body ornamentation is similar to modern-day society's use of "make-up, jewelry and fancy watches to indicate, or to fool others, about our status and wealth," said the anthropologist. (More Journal Nature stories.)