early humans

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Experts Decode Ancient Girl's Genome

Pinky bone reveals eye, hair color of child who lived 80K years ago

(Newser) - You can tell a lot about someone from her finger bone—even if it's 80,000 years old. Using the bone, scientists were able to sequence an ancient Siberian girl's genome 31 times; now, they can tell you her hair, eyes, and skin color, Science reports. (All were...

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—...

Earliest Matches Found at Dig Site

Stone and clay relics in Israel are 8,000 years old

(Newser) - Archaelogists say a set of peculiar, ancient artifacts might just be the earliest known matches. The cylindrical objects, fashioned from stone and clay, date back nearly 8,000 years. At first, scientists thought they were phallic cultural symbols, but then a group of Israeli researchers noticed a striking similarity to...

Ancient Relatives of Humans Ate Wood

Scientists analyzed dental tartar in fossils

(Newser) - Did our ancestors eat trees? New fossil evidence shows that a 2 million-year-old relative of humans nibbled on bark and leaves, reports BBC . Scientists analyzed the teeth of two members of the "southern ape" species, or Australopithecus sediba, and found evidence that they included wood in their diet.

Stone-Age Artists: The 1st Animators
 Stone-Age Artists: 
 The 1st Animators 
study says
Jun 4, 2012 4:38 PM CDT

Stone-Age Artists: The 1st Animators

Chauvet cave paintings tell stories, simulate movement

(Newser) - A Stone-Age Walt Disney? That's what two French researchers see in 30,000-year-old paintings that adorn caves like Chauvet and La Baume Latrone, Science News reports. Long cave paintings depict full stories, they say, and rotating bone disks found at the sites can be twirled to animate images of...

World's Oldest Instrument Discovered in Cave

Flutes may have helped early humans endure bitter cold

(Newser) - Researchers have identified two flutes made from mammoth ivory and bird bone as the world's oldest musical instruments, the BBC reports. Discovered in a cave in southern Germany, the flutes were likely fashioned 42,000 to 43,000 years ago, when early humans used them for religious ritual or...

Europe's Oldest Cave Art: Female Genitalia

Vulva-like carving adorns hunter-gatherer cave

(Newser) - Hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe a long time ago apparently liked carving female genitalia into the ceiling, LiveScience reports. A new discovery in France reveals that Europe's most venerable rock art—about 37,000 years old—depicted something that looks like vulva. "It's quotidian art, it's...

What Really Killed Off Neanderthals (Hint: Not Us)

DNA evidence shows Ice Age probably killed most of them

(Newser) - So we didn't kill off the Neanderthals after all. That's the conclusion of researchers who analyzed Neanderthal-bone DNA and deduced that most of them died off in Western Europe during the Ice Age, long before encountering modern humans. A small Neanderthal group lived on for about 10,000...

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...

42K-Year-Old Tuna Dinner Discovered

We've been eating the fish for millennia: archeologists

(Newser) - It gives “leftovers” a whole new meaning: Archeologists have discovered the remnants of a 42,000-year-old tuna meal, they say. They found tuna and shark bones in an East Timor cave, near Australia. The findings suggest that ancient humans were capable of deep-sea fishing, shedding light on questions over...

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...

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...

Humans Left Africa Far Earlier Than We Thought

Stone tools defy genetic story

(Newser) - Stone tools discovered in the Arabian peninsula suggest modern humans may have left Africa 125,000 years ago—some 50,000 years earlier than previously believed. Genetic data points to humans departing Africa around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, the BBC notes. But the genetic data is "...

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...

Neanderthals Wore Makeup, Jewelry
 Neanderthals Wore 
 Makeup, Jewelry 
KNUCKLE-DRAGGING VANITY
Jan 12, 2010 10:22 AM CST

Neanderthals Wore Makeup, Jewelry

Find suggests they were just as advanced as early humans

(Newser) - Our Neanderthal cousins apparently picked their knuckles off the ground long enough to dabble in makeup and baubles, leading researchers to suggest they were no less intelligent than our direct ancestors at the same time in history. Newly unearthed evidence of 50,000-year-old jewelry and even makeup in a cave...

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...

How Did Neanderthals Die? We Ate Them

New study suggests cannibalism by modern humans

(Newser) - Anthropologists may have solved the mystery of how the Neanderthals died out. A new study suggests they were hunted and eaten by modern human beings, reports the Guardian. The controversial theory argues that a Neanderthal jaw bone shows signs of butchering similar to the techniques humans used on deer in...

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