Homo erectus

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Scientists: We've Found a New Human Relative

Experts say Homo naledi may have buried its dead, but others aren't convinced

(Newser) - Scientists say it's a find "unlike anything that we have seen." Deep within a South African cave, experts claim to have uncovered the remains of a previously unknown human ancestor that stood about 5 feet tall, weighed 100 pounds, used tools, and may have buried its dead—...

Ancient Zigzag Means First Artist Wasn't Exactly Human

Scratches on shell pre-date Homo sapiens

(Newser) - A human ancestor carved a zigzag onto the shell of a mussel some 430,000 years ago. Now that shell, recovered from a riverbank in Indonesia in 1891, could alter our understanding of what it means to be human. Artistic creativity has long been considered unique to Homo sapiens: Before...

1.8M-Year-Old Skull Alters Tale of Human History

'Jaw-dropping' find points to single species spreading from Africa

(Newser) - Many scientists have argued that several different species of human ancestors spread from Africa—but a 1.8 million-year-old skull and the fossilized remains of four other creatures seem to tell a different story. The scientists who found the bones at Dmanisi, in the country of Georgia, in 2005 say...

Humans' Big Edge Over Chimps: We Can Throw

When our ancestors figured it out 2 million years ago, it was huge

(Newser) - A chimp would never be able to throw a fastball, or anything even close to a fastball, and that seemingly weird fact helps explain why humans came to rule the animal kingdom, says a new study in Nature . Researchers say that early humans—Homo erectus, to be exact—developed the...

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—...

Apeman Fossil Could Be Missing Link

Swinging between species

(Newser) - Have scientists finally found the "missing link" connecting human-like apes to the first human? A South African researcher is convinced he may have tracked down the creature after an exhaustive examination of the partial skeletons of a young female adult and a male child of a hominin that lived...

Researchers Pinpoint Oldest Homo Erectus Tools

Axes, other implements go back 1.8M years in Kenya

(Newser) - A new study has identified the oldest known tools to have been used by Homo erectus. Until now, archaeologists had figured that the oldest tools used by man’s ancestor were somewhere in the ballpark of 1.4 million to 1.6 million years old. But now geologists have discovered...

Fossil May Reveal New Human Species

Child's pinky bone in Siberia is from 40,000 years ago

(Newser) - A pinky bone found in a Siberian cave may be the first evidence of a previously unknown human species. Scientists examining the 40,000-year-old fossil found DNA that differed from humans and Neanderthals, though they also inhabited the area. "I was amazed," the lead researcher tells USA Today...

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...

Island 'Hobbits' Separate Human Species

Separate species may have evolved from homo erectus

(Newser) - Two new reports forward the theory that the tiny people who roamed an Indonesian island 8,000 years ago were a separate species of human, the BBC reports, not just pygmy versions of homo sapiens. The biggest clue is the feet of the “hobbits,” which are distinctly primitive...

Meet the First European

Forensic artist reconstructs face of first modern human found in Europe

(Newser) - Meet the first modern European. His face—or hers, as researchers have been unable to determine the sex—was reconstructed by a forensic artist based on a partial skull and jawbone discovered in a Romanian cave. The facial features linked to the 35,000-year-old bones recall the continent's immediate African...

'Hobbit' Fossils Mesmerize Scientists

Number of supporters grow for 'distinct' hominid species theory

(Newser) - Six years after their discovery on an Indonesian island, fossils of 3-foot-tall people creatures nicknamed "hobbits" continue to captivate researchers, reports the New York Times. So far, they haven't been clearly linked to other known human fossils. They may be descendants of Homo erectus who migrated from Africa earlier,...

Ancient Footprints Reveal Path to Humanity

Tracks in Kenya are 1.5 million years old

(Newser) - Scientists have unearthed ancient footprints that reveal humanity's ancestors walked with a modern stride as long as 1.5 million years ago, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Researchers believe the tracks—left beside a muddy river bank in Kenya and preserved when the river changed course—belong to human ancestor Homo ...

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

Wrist-bone analysis shows link to apes

(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,...

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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