Topic description and stories

Shanidar Z: what did Neanderthals do with their dead?

18 Feb 2020

Archaeologists have unearthed a Neanderthal skeleton in a famous cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. They say the new discovery provides a unique opportunity to...

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Australopithecus afarensis reconstruction

Opinion: No giant leap for mankind: why we’ve been looking at human evolution in the wrong way

14 Jun 2016

Robert Foley (Department of Archaeology and Anthropology) discusses the cumulative processes by which we became human.

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Neanderthal man

Neanderthals may have been infected by diseases carried out of Africa by humans, say researchers

11 Apr 2016

Review of latest genetic evidence suggests infectious diseases are tens of thousands of years older than previously thought, and that they could jump...

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‘Virtual fossil’ reveals last common ancestor of humans and Neanderthals

18 Dec 2015

New digital techniques have allowed researchers to predict structural evolution of the skull in the lineage of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, in an...

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Diagram showing spread of humans from Africa.

Scientists use genetics and climate reconstructions to track the global spread of modern humans out of Africa

17 Sep 2012

Research indicates the out-of-Africa spread of humans was dictated by the appearance of favourable climatic windows.

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DNA rendering

Doubts about whether modern humans and Neanderthals interbred

13 Aug 2012

Findings point to common ancestry to explain genetic similarities.

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The traditional image of Neanderthals as gritty people who spent most of their time out hunting might not be entirely accurate, according to a new study revealing that they may have had to devote hours to daily subsistence tasks instead.

Caveman about the house

19 Jul 2012

The traditional image of Neanderthals as gritty people who spent most of their time out hunting might not be entirely accurate, according to a new...

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Map of the migration of modern man out of Africa.  Triangles represent Aurignacian (considered the first modern humans) split-base points.

Strength in numbers

28 Jul 2011

Volume of modern humans infiltrating Europe cited as critical factor in the demise of the Neanderthals.

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Camp Fire

A strange way to share food

01 Apr 2007

Close scrutiny of the ancient remains of our ancestors’ meals gives us some sense of the development and rationale behind our strange food-sharing...

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