Featured
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News & Views |
Early Homo sapiens in China
The timing of the dispersal of our species from Africa is a continuing and lively topic of debate. Evidence that modern humans existed in China more than 100,000 years ago is both equivocal and thought-provoking.
- Robin Dennell
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News |
Mayans converted wetlands to farmland
The sophistication of the civilization's agricultural systems rivalled their pyramids.
- Amanda Mascarelli
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Letter |
Fine-scale recombination rate differences between sexes, populations and individuals
Here, human genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from more than 15,000 parent–offspring pairs have been used to construct the first recombination maps that are based on directly observed recombination events. The data reveal interesting differences between the sexes: for instance, in males recombination tends to shuffle exons, whereas in females it generates new combinations of nearby genes. Comparison of these maps with others also reveals population differences.
- Augustine Kong
- , Gudmar Thorleifsson
- & Kari Stefansson
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News |
Stone Age flour found across Europe
Starch residues on stone tools suggest early humans ate a balanced diet.
- Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
Political evolution
Phylogenetic methods of evolutionary biology can be used to study socio-political variation mapped onto linguistic trees. The range of political complexities in Austronesian societies offers a good test case. See Article p.801
- Jared Diamond
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News |
Societies evolve in steps
Political complexity increases gradually — but can decline rapidly.
- Kerri Smith
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News |
What makes a 300-year-old pocket watch tick?
X-ray analysis shows the exquisite workmanship inside a rusty relic.
- Jo Marchant
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News |
French bid to save rock art
Revamped conservation effort aims to correct mistakes made in preserving cave paintings.
- Declan Butler
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Research Highlights |
Primatology: Thanks mum!
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Books & Arts |
Monkey business
Walton Ford's painting of a historical primate banquet belongs to a rich tradition of exploring the 'human animal', explains Martin Kemp.
- Martin Kemp
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News |
'Grandmother hypothesis' takes a hit
Pinning longevity to benefits women bestow on their grandchildren may not be plausible.
- Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
Australopithecine butchers
How far back in the human lineage does tool use extend? Fossil bones that bear evidence of butchery marks made by stone implements increase the known range of that behaviour to at least 3.2 million years ago.
- David R. Braun
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News |
Notes from an excavation
Russell L. Ciochon and his team are in Indonesia investigating the geological source and age of one of the world's biggest caches of Homo erectus.
- Miriam Frankel
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News |
Audit picks a bone with US relics office
Congressional watchdog unearths shortcomings at agency in charge of repatriating ancient tribal remains.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
Ancient Italian artefacts get the blues
Scientists accuse officials of neglect as chemicals discolour stored relics.
- Alison Abbott
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News & Views |
Early human northerners
A site in Norfolk, UK, provides the earliest and northernmost evidence of human expansion into Eurasia. Environmental indicators suggest that these early Britons could adapt to a range of climatic conditions.
- Andrew P. Roberts
- & Rainer Grün
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News |
An archaeologist digs through her life
At 94, Halet Çambel is seen as a 'scientific hero' in Turkey.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
Early Britons could cope with cold
A harsh climate did not stop humans moving to northern Europe nearly a million years ago.
- Miriam Frankel
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News Feature |
Palaeoanthropology: Disputed ground
Finds in Turkey could answer key questions about ancient human origins, but palaeoanthropologists there must first bury their disputes. Rex Dalton reports from the field.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
Egyptian kingdoms dated
Radioactive isotopes nail the timeline of Egyptian dynasties.
- Richard Lovett
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News |
Jews worldwide share genetic ties
But analysis also reveals close links to Palestinians and Italians.
- Alla Katsnelson
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News |
Ardi may be more ape than human
Woodland home and hominid ancestry of Ardipithecus ramidus questioned.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
Teeth tell temperature tales
Dinosaurs' dental samples could reveal details of body temperature.
- Richard Lovett
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News |
Ancient DNA set to rewrite human history
Discovery that some humans are part-Neanderthal reveals the promise of comparing genomes old and new.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
European and Asian genomes have traces of Neanderthal
Migrating humans interbred with Neanderthals after leaving Africa.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
Neanderthals may have interbred with humans
Genetic data points to ancient liaisons between species.
- Rex Dalton
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News |
Roman ingots to shield particle detector
Lead from ancient shipwreck will line Italian neutrino experiment.
- Nicola Nosengo
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News |
Claim over 'human ancestor' sparks furore
Researchers dispute that hominin fossil is a new species.
- Michael Cherry
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News |
Rule poses threat to museum bones
Law change will allow Native American tribes to reclaim ancient bones found close to their lands.
- Rex Dalton
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News & Views |
Stranger from Siberia
The sequencing of ancient DNA is generating dramatic results. The sequence from a bone fragment has revealed the existence of an unknown type of extinct human ancestor that lived in Asia 40,000 years ago.
- Terence A. Brown
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News |
Fossil finger points to new human species
DNA analysis reveals lost relative from 40,000 years ago.
- Rex Dalton
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Letter
| Open AccessThe complete mitochondrial DNA genome of an unknown hominin from southern Siberia
Ancient mitochondrial DNA from a hominin individual who lived in the mountains of Central Asia between 48,000–30,000 years ago has been sequenced. Comparative genomics suggest that this mitochondrial DNA derives from an out-of-Africa migration distinct from the ones that gave rise to Neanderthals and modern humans. It also seems that this hominin lived in close spatio-temporal proximity to Neanderthals and modern humans.
- Johannes Krause
- , Qiaomei Fu
- & Svante Pääbo
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News |
Hobbit origins pushed back
Stone tools reveal that hominins lived on the Indonesian island of Flores a million years ago.
- Rex Dalton
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Books & Arts |
Two views of collapse
We need realism, not positivity, to learn lessons from past societal demises, urges Jared Diamond.
- Jared Diamond
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News |
King Tut's death explained?
Experts question claims that malaria and osteonecrosis contributed to Pharaoh's decline.
- Declan Butler
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News |
DNA secrets of the ice hair
First ancient human genome sheds light on origins of Arctic people.
- Rex Dalton
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Correspondence |
Climate e-mails: man's mark is clear in thermometer record
- Hans von Storch
- & Myles Allen