Letter |
Featured
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Books & Arts |
Palaeoanthropology: African origins
Jean-Jacques Hublin enjoys a book supporting the idea that modern humans replaced Neanderthals.
- Jean-Jacques Hublin
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News |
Ancient Egyptians used 'hair gel'
Mummy analysis finds that fat-based product held styles in place.
- Jo Marchant
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Books & Arts |
Evolution: The long trek to domesticated bliss
Our fondness for fauna comes from an evolved human need to nurture, argues Juliet Clutton-Brock.
- Juliet Clutton-Brock
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News & Views |
Deep relationships between languages
Tracing a common ancestry between languages becomes harder as the connection goes further back in time. A new test has revealed a surprisingly ancient relationship between a central Siberian and a North American language family.
- Jared Diamond
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Books & Arts |
Anthropology: Head to head
A scenario blaming rats for the devastation of Easter Island doesn't account for recent results, argues Paul Bahn.
- Paul Bahn
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News |
Ancient DNA reveals secrets of human history
Modern humans may have picked up key genes from extinct relatives.
- Ewen Callaway
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News |
'Hobbit' just a deformed human?
Skull scans suggest that the small-brained Indonesian hominid was a modern human suffering from a developmental disorder.
- Matt Kaplan
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News & Views |
Shades of the savannah
Whether African savannahs had an impact on the evolution of our early ancestors has been a matter of debate. A study of carbon isotopes from ancient soils provides fresh clues. See Article p.51
- Craig S. Feibel
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Article |
Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years
- Thure E. Cerling
- , Jonathan G. Wynn
- & Christopher H. Remien
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News |
Human history writ large in a single genome
The first humans to leave Africa continued to interbreed with Africans for tens of thousands of years.
- Ewen Callaway
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Books & Arts |
Demographics: The growth of nations
Michael Sargent enjoys a social history of how height and lifespan increased during the Industrial Revolution.
- Michael Sargent
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News |
Hadrian's buildings catch the Sun
The Emperor's country estate is aligned to meet the solstices.
- Eric Hand
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Research Highlights |
Dinner date in Madagascar
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News |
Hungarian natural history under threat
Historical collections given marching orders as government plans military university at museum site.
- Marian Turner
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News |
Human ancestors in Eurasia earlier than thought
Stone fragments found in Georgia suggest Homo erectus might have evolved outside Africa.
- Matt Kaplan
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Research Highlights |
Kiwi DNA tells Maori history
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News & Views |
In search of the australopithecines
Evidence from strontium isotope ratios preserved in fossil teeth provides a glimpse into the group dynamics and ranging habits of the australopithecines that can be compared with the patterns for modern primates. See Letter p.76
- Margaret J. Schoeninger
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News |
Female australopiths seek brave new world
Teeth from ancient human ancestors suggest that females joined new social groups once they reached maturity.
- Ewen Callaway
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Letter |
Strontium isotope evidence for landscape use by early hominins
- Sandi R. Copeland
- , Matt Sponheimer
- & Michael P. Richards
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News |
Ancient DNA points to Maori feather trade
Kiwi DNA preserved in Maori cloaks reveals the origins and history of the revered textiles.
- Ewen Callaway
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News |
Human influence comes of age
Geologists debate epoch to mark effects of Homo sapiens.
- Nicola Jones
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News & Views |
The cost of cultivation
There were probably many reasons for the adoption of agriculture by prehistoric human societies. A fresh perspective comes from a quantitative estimate of the relative productivity of farming and foraging.
- Graeme Barker
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News |
Europeans never had Neanderthal neighbours
Russian find suggests Neanderthals died out earlier than was thought.
- Ewen Callaway
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News Feature |
Ancient DNA: Curse of the Pharaoh's DNA
Some researchers claim to have analysed DNA from Egyptian mummies. Others say that's impossible. Could new sequencing methods bridge the divide?
- Jo Marchant
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News |
Immigration tracked through desert detritus
Discarded possessions reveal dangers of journey from Mexico into Arizona.
- Nadia Drake
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Research Highlights |
Remains in ancient cave get younger
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Research Highlights |
Early farmers caused floods
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Research Highlights |
North America's first tool users?
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News |
The 8,000-year-old climate puzzle
Models bolster case for early human effect on greenhouse-gas levels.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News |
Stone tools cut swathe through Clovis history
Dig uncovers previously unknown North American culture.
- Matt Kaplan
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Correspondence |
Anthropology: it can be interdisciplinary
- Eric Alden Smith
- , Michael Gurven
- & Monique Borgerhoff Mulder
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Correspondence |
Anthropology: follow field primatologists
- K. Anne-Isola Nekaris
- , Vincent Nijman
- & Laurie R. Godfrey
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News |
Early Europeans unwarmed by fire
The first hominins to migrate into Europe may have done so without fire.
- Matt Kaplan
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Research Highlights |
Stone Age home by the sea
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News |
Out of southern Africa
A genetic study challenges the idea that modern humans evolved in eastern Africa.
- Matt Kaplan
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News |
Seafront property attracts ancient Californians
Ancient island camps in California suggest early Americans were at home by the sea.
- Ewen Callaway
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Books & Arts |
Q&A: Facing the past: Manolis Papagrigorakis
The Athens-based orthodontist explains the art and science of reconstructing the heads of long-dead people from their skulls alone, including that of Myrtis — a young girl from more than 2,000 years ago, whose recreated face is our first glimpse of an ordinary ancient Greek.
- Alison McCook
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Books & Arts |
Anthropology: The Iceman defrosted
Marta Paterlini reports on an exhibition marking 20 years since Ötzi, one of the world's oldest natural mummies, was discovered under the Alpine ice.
- Marta Paterlini
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News |
Libya's 'extraordinary' archaeology under threat
As the Gadaffi regime continues to massacre citizens, its repression also puts a rich cultural heritage at risk.
- Declan Butler
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Research Highlights |
No marathons for Neanderthals
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News |
The con of convergence
Sifting early human from non-human fossils is complicated by convergent evolution.
- Matt Kaplan
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News |
These bones were made for walking
Human-like foot arches strengthen argument that Australopithecus 'Lucy' was not a climber.
- Matt Kaplan
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Comment |
Anthropologists unite!
Anthropology isn't in the crisis that parts of the media would have you believe, but it must do better, argue Adam Kuper and Jonathan Marks.
- Adam Kuper
- & Jonathan Marks
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News & Views |
Trailblazers across Arabia
What role did the Arabian peninsula play in the expansion of our species out of Africa? An archaeological site in the United Arab Emirates provides tantalizing new evidence that supports an early human migration from Africa.
- Michael D. Petraglia
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News |
Did Vikings navigate by polarized light?
'Sunstone' crystals may have helped seafarers to find the Sun on cloudy days.
- Jo Marchant
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News |
Early human migration written in stone tools
Humans may have trekked across the Arabian peninsula 125,000 years ago, on their way to Asia.
- Ewen Callaway
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News |
Researchers to drill for hobbit history
Prospects of recovering ancient DNA from Homo floresiensis boosted by study on teeth.
- Cheryl Jones