Featured
-
-
Article
| Open AccessArchaeological and molecular evidence for ancient chickens in Central Asia
The origin and dispersal of the chicken across Eurasia is unclear. Here, the authors examine eggshell fragments from southern Central Asia with paleoproteomics to identify chicken eggshells, suggesting that chickens may have been an important dietary component as early as 400BCE.
- Carli Peters
- , Kristine K. Richter
- & Robert N. Spengler III
-
Article
| Open AccessThe Miocene primate Pliobates is a pliopithecoid
Pliobates cataloniae is a small-bodied Miocene catarrhine primate with unclear systematic status. Here, the authors present additional dental remains from this species, conducting cladistic analyses that indicate it is a pliopithecoid convergent with apes in elbow and wrist morphology.
- Florian Bouchet
- , Clément Zanolli
- & David M. Alba
-
Article
| Open AccessThe Persian plateau served as hub for Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa dispersal
The timing and chronology of the movement of Homo sapiens after migration out of Africa remains unclear. Here, the authors combine a genetic approach with a palaeoecological model to estimate that the Persian Plateau could have been a hub for migration out of Africa, suggesting the environment may have been suitable for population maintenance.
- Leonardo Vallini
- , Carlo Zampieri
- & Luca Pagani
-
Comment
| Open AccessThe bioethics of skeletal anatomy collections from India
Millions of skeletal remains from South Asia were exported in red markets (the underground economy of human tissues/organs) to educational institutions globally for over a century. It is time to recognize the personhood of the people who were systematically made into anatomical objects and acknowledge the scientific racism in creating and continuing to use them.
- Sabrina C. Agarwal
-
Article
| Open AccessDelayed increase in stone tool cutting-edge productivity at the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in southern Jordan
Lithic cutting-edge productivity is a way of quantifying prehistoric human technological evolution. Here, the authors examine the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition across eight assemblages in the eastern Mediterranean, finding the transition to be later than expected and associated with bladelet technology development.
- Seiji Kadowaki
- , Joe Yuichiro Wakano
- & Sate Massadeh
-
Article
| Open AccessDental morphology in Homo habilis and its implications for the evolution of early Homo
The origin of the genus Homo is debated. Here, the authors investigate the morphology of the H. habilis enamel-dentine junction using a sample of 911 hominin and extant ape teeth, finding that H. habilis has more in common with Australopithecus than later members of the genus Homo.
- Thomas W. Davies
- , Philipp Gunz
- & Matthew M. Skinner
-
Article
| Open AccessInferring language dispersal patterns with velocity field estimation
Reconstructing language dispersal patterns is important for understanding cultural spread and demic diffusion. Here, the authors use a computational approach based on velocity field estimation to infer the dispersal patterns of Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Bantu, and Arawak language families.
- Sizhe Yang
- , Xiaoru Sun
- & Menghan Zhang
-
Article
| Open AccessGenomic portrait and relatedness patterns of the Iron Age Log Coffin culture in northwestern Thailand
Large log coffins placed on stilts in natural caves characterize the Iron Age of northwestern Thailand. Here, the authors conduct archaeogenetic analyses of 33 individuals, identifying a large, well-connected community, where genetic relatedness played a significant role in the mortuary ritual.
- Selina Carlhoff
- , Wibhu Kutanan
- & Johannes Krause
-
Article
| Open AccessPhylogenetic evidence reveals early Kra-Dai divergence and dispersal in the late Holocene
Kra-Dai language family exhibits great linguistic diversity and tremendous socio-cultural importance in East Asia. In this study, the authors found that Kra-Dai languages initially diverged ~4,000 years ago in Southern China coinciding with prehistoric demic and agricultural diffusions likely driven by climate change.
- Yuxin Tao
- , Yuancheng Wei
- & Menghan Zhang
-
Article
| Open AccessHuman consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe
Marine food resources are commonly thought to have become marginal food or abandoned altogether with the spread of agriculture in Europe. Here, the authors use biomarkers in dental calculus to track widespread consumption of seaweed and aquatic plants through the Neolithic and into the Early Middle Ages.
- Stephen Buckley
- , Karen Hardy
- & Maria Eulalia Subirà
-
Article
| Open AccessGroup size and mating system predict sex differences in vocal fundamental frequency in anthropoid primates
Sexual dimorphism in the fundamental frequency of primate vocalizations is variable. Here, the authors examine 1914 vocalizations from 37 anthropoid species to find that fundamental frequency dimorphism increased with larger group size and polygyny, due to sexual selection.
- Toe Aung
- , Alexander K. Hill
- & David A. Puts
-
Article
| Open AccessEarly presence of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia by 86–68 kyr at Tam Pà Ling, Northern Laos
Here the authors report new human fossils from Tam Pà Ling cave, Laos, consisting of a cranial and a tibial fragment, dated to 68–86 thousand years ago. This find confirms that Homo sapiens were present in Southeast Asia by this time and the shape of the fossils indicates they may have descended from non-local populations.
- Sarah E. Freidline
- , Kira E. Westaway
- & Fabrice Demeter
-
Article
| Open AccessChanges in limiting factors for forager population dynamics in Europe across the last glacial-interglacial transition
Here, the authors use climate and resource availability, to statistically model the limiting factors in the dynamics of hunter-gatherer population densities in Europe between 21,000 and 8,000 years ago. They find that limiting factors varied spatiotemporally and the effects of these may be visible in the archaeological record.
- Alejandro Ordonez
- & Felix Riede
-
Article
| Open AccessNeolithic culinary traditions revealed by cereal, milk and meat lipids in pottery from Scottish crannogs
Despite archaeobotanical evidence for domesticated cereals, organic residue evidence is scarce. Here, the authors identify cereal-specific markers in pottery from Scottish ‘crannogs’, revealing the presence of cereals in Neolithic pottery which might have been mixed with dairy products as a milk-based gruel.
- Simon Hammann
- , Rosie R. Bishop
- & Lucy J. E. Cramp
-
Article
| Open AccessDrought-Induced Civil Conflict Among the Ancient Maya
The influence of climate on premodern civil conflict and societal instability is debated. Here, the authors combine archeological, historical, and paleoclimatic datasets to show that drought between 1400-1450 cal. CE escalated civil conflict at Mayapan, the largest Postclassic Maya capital of the Yucatán Peninsula.
- Douglas J. Kennett
- , Marilyn Masson
- & David A. Hodell
-
Matters Arising
| Open AccessEvidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths
- Umberto Lombardo
- , Manuel Arroyo-Kalin
- & Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira
-
Article
| Open AccessMothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe
The question of whether women who produce twins are more fertile than other women has been debated. Here, the authors analyze a large dataset of pre-industrial birth outcomes and find evidence against the idea of higher fertility and instead that more births lead to more twinning opportunities.
- Ian J. Rickard
- , Colin Vullioud
- & Alexandre Courtiol
-
Article
| Open AccessA Middle Pleistocene Denisovan molar from the Annamite Chain of northern Laos
Evidence for the presence of Homo during the Middle Pleistocene is limited in continental Southeast Asia. Here, the authors report a hominin molar from Tam Ngu Hao 2 (Cobra Cave), dated to 164–131 kyr. They use morphological and paleoproteomic analysis to show that it likely belonged to a female Denisovan.
- Fabrice Demeter
- , Clément Zanolli
- & Laura Shackelford
-
Article
| Open AccessIndigenous oyster fisheries persisted for millennia and should inform future management
‘Commercial fisheries have decimated keystone species, including oysters in the past 200 years. Here, the authors examine how Indigenous oyster harvest in North America and Australia was managed across 10,000 years, advocating for effective future stewardship of oyster reefs by centering Indigenous peoples.’
- Leslie Reeder-Myers
- , Todd J. Braje
- & Torben C. Rick
-
Article
| Open AccessAncient genomes from the Himalayas illuminate the genetic history of Tibetans and their Tibeto-Burman speaking neighbors
Liu et al. report genome-wide data of 33 ancient individuals from the Himalayas, illuminating the deep genetic history of Tibetans and other Tibeto-Burman-speaking populations around the Tibetan Plateau in fine resolution.
- Chi-Chun Liu
- , David Witonsky
- & Choongwon Jeong
-
Article
| Open AccessGeographically dispersed zoonotic tuberculosis in pre-contact South American human populations
‘Pre-contact era humans from coastal South America were infected by Mycobacterium pinnipedii, most likely, through contact with infected pinnipeds. Here, the authors investigate the presence of M. pinnipedii in pre-contact era humans from inland South America and explore potential scenarios of human-to-human or animal-mediated transmission.’
- Åshild J. Vågene
- , Tanvi P. Honap
- & Kirsten I. Bos
-
Article
| Open AccessClimatic windows for human migration out of Africa in the past 300,000 years
It is still unclear when and by which route modern humans expanded out of Africa. Here, Beyer et al. use paleoclimate reconstructions and estimates of human precipitation requirements to evaluate the survivability of spatial and temporal migration corridors to Eurasia over the last 300,000 years.
- Robert M. Beyer
- , Mario Krapp
- & Andrea Manica
-
Article
| Open AccessDifferent environmental variables predict body and brain size evolution in Homo
Increasing body and brain size constitutes a key pattern in human evolution, but the mechanisms driving these changes remain debated. Using a large fossil dataset combined with global paleoclimatic reconstructions, the authors show that different environmental variables influenced the evolution of brain and body size in Homo.
- Manuel Will
- , Mario Krapp
- & Andrea Manica
-
Article
| Open AccessApproximate Bayesian Computation of radiocarbon and paleoenvironmental record shows population resilience on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates can be used to estimate past demography, but methods to test for associations with environmental change are lacking. Here, DiNapoli et al. propose an approach using Approximate Bayesian Computation and illustrate it in a case study of Rapa Nui.
- Robert J. DiNapoli
- , Enrico R. Crema
- & Terry L. Hunt
-
Article
| Open AccessHoney-collecting in prehistoric West Africa from 3500 years ago
Though there is a long archaeological record of the use of honey, beeswax and other bee products, there are few known records from Africa. Here Dunne et al. analyse lipid residues from pottery from the Nok culture, Nigeria, dating to ~3500 years ago and find evidence of the collection and processing of bee products, likely honey.
- Julie Dunne
- , Alexa Höhn
- & Richard P. Evershed
-
Article
| Open AccessNew hominin remains and revised context from the earliest Homo erectus locality in East Turkana, Kenya
KNM-ER 2598 is one of the oldest known Homo erectus fossils but there are doubts about its age. Here, Hammond et al. trace the original location of the specimen, confirming an age >1.85 million years, and locating additional hominin fossils situated in a paleohabitat dominated by C4 grazers.
- Ashley S. Hammond
- , Silindokuhle S. Mavuso
- & Dan V. Palcu
-
Article
| Open AccessAncient proteins provide evidence of dairy consumption in eastern Africa
Consuming the milk of other species is a unique adaptation of Homo sapiens. Here, the authors carry out proteomic analysis of dental calculus of 41 ancient individuals from Sudan and Kenya, indicating milk consumption occurred as soon as herding spread into eastern Africa.
- Madeleine Bleasdale
- , Kristine K. Richter
- & Nicole Boivin
-
Article
| Open AccessGroup-level cooperation in chimpanzees is shaped by strong social ties
Strong social bonds are known to affect pairwise cooperation in primates such chimpanzees. Here, Samuni et al. show that strong social bonds also influence participation in group-level cooperation (collective action in intergroup encounters) using a long-term dataset of wild chimpanzees.
- Liran Samuni
- , Catherine Crockford
- & Roman M. Wittig
-
Article
| Open AccessEarliest Olduvai hominins exploited unstable environments ~ 2 million years ago
Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania is a key site for understanding early human evolution. Here, the authors report a multiproxy dataset from the Western basin of Oldupai Gorge dating to 2 million years ago, enabling the in situ comparison of lithic assemblages, paleoenvironments and hominin behavioral adaptability.
- Julio Mercader
- , Pam Akuku
- & Michael Petraglia
-
Article
| Open AccessProsociality predicts labor market success around the world
Previous research on the importance of prosociality is based on observations from WEIRD societies, questioning the generalizability of these findings. Here the authors present a global investigation of the relation between prosociality and labor market success and generalize the positive relation to a wide geographical context.
- Fabian Kosse
- & Michela M. Tincani
-
Article
| Open AccessMicrobiota assembly, structure, and dynamics among Tsimane horticulturalists of the Bolivian Amazon
Selective and neutral forces shape human microbiota assembly in early life. Here, Sprockett et al. study microbial community assembly in 47 infant-mother pairs from the Tsimane, an indigenous Bolivian population, highlighting the importance of neutral forces during microbiota assembly.
- Daniel D. Sprockett
- , Melanie Martin
- & David A. Relman
-
Article
| Open AccessCalcium isotopic ecology of Turkana Basin hominins
Non-traditional stable isotopes, such as of calcium, have potential to expand our understanding of ancient diets. Here, Martin et al. use stable calcium isotopes recovered from fossil tooth enamel to compare the dietary ecology of hominins and other primates in the Turkana Basin 2-4 million years ago.
- Jeremy E. Martin
- , Théo Tacail
- & Vincent Balter
-
Article
| Open AccessAncient genomes from northern China suggest links between subsistence changes and human migration
Northern China contains some of the world’s earliest farming societies. Here, authors use 55 ancient genomes to trace the genetic history of human migrations across northern China for the last 7500 years, and document genetic changes mirroring shifts in subsistence strategy.
- Chao Ning
- , Tianjiao Li
- & Yinqiu Cui
-
Article
| Open AccessFossils from Mille-Logya, Afar, Ethiopia, elucidate the link between Pliocene environmental changes and Homo origins
Key events in human evolution are thought to have occurred between 3 and 2.5 Ma, but the fossil record of this period is sparse. Here, Alemseged et al. report a new fossil site from this period, Mille-Logya, Ethiopia, and characterize the geology, basin evolution and fauna, including specimens of Homo.
- Zeresenay Alemseged
- , Jonathan G. Wynn
- & Joseph Mohan
-
Article
| Open AccessScale and information-processing thresholds in Holocene social evolution
The Seshat database has made it possible to reveal large-scale patterns in human cultural evolution. Here, Shin et al. investigate transitions in social complexity and find alternating thresholds of polity size and information processing required for further sociopolitical development.
- Jaeweon Shin
- , Michael Holton Price
- & Timothy A. Kohler
-
Article
| Open AccessChild volunteers in a women's paramilitary organization in World War II have accelerated reproductive schedules
Life history theory predicts that females will adjust reproductive timing in response to environmental challenges. Here the authors show that young girls exposed to higher mortality rates during war give birth earlier and more often than their peers who were not exposed to these conditions.
- Robert Lynch
- , Virpi Lummaa
- & John Loehr
-
Article
| Open AccessIsotopic evidence for initial coastal colonization and subsequent diversification in the human occupation of Wallacea
There has been substantial debate of how hominins colonized Australasia through Wallacea, including their ability to utilize marine vs. terrestrial resources. Here, Roberts et al. use stable carbon and oxygen isotopes to reconstruct temporal shifts in the diets of early human inhabitants of Alor and Timor.
- Patrick Roberts
- , Julien Louys
- & Sue OʼConnor
-
Article
| Open AccessLatitudinal gradient in dairy production with the introduction of farming in Atlantic Europe
The transition to agriculture brought major changes to human populations in Europe during the Neolithic period. Here, Cubas and colleagues analyse lipid residues from Neolithic pottery from along the Atlantic coast of Europe to trace the spread of dairy production and shifts in diet.
- Miriam Cubas
- , Alexandre Lucquin
- & Oliver E. Craig
-
Article
| Open AccessMarine resource abundance drove pre-agricultural population increase in Stone Age Scandinavia
How the development of human societies is influenced through their ecological environment and climatic conditions has been the subject of intensive debate. Here, the authors present multi-proxy data from southern Scandinavia which suggests that pre-agricultural population growth there was likely influenced by enhanced marine production.
- J. P. Lewis
- , D. B. Ryves
- & S. Juggins
-
Article
| Open AccessHuman occupation of northern India spans the Toba super-eruption ~74,000 years ago
When modern humans colonized India is debated. Here, Clarkson and colleagues report an archaeological site in India that has been occupied for approximately 80,000 years and contains a stone tool assemblage attributed to Homo sapiens that matches artefacts from Africa, Arabia, and Australia.
- Chris Clarkson
- , Clair Harris
- & Michael Petraglia
-
Article
| Open AccessHuman large-scale cooperation as a product of competition between cultural groups
The authors here show that readiness to cooperate between individuals from different groups corresponds to the degree of cultural similarity between those groups. This is consistent with the theory of Cultural Group Selection as an explanation for the rise of human large-scale cooperation.
- Carla Handley
- & Sarah Mathew
-
Article
| Open AccessA 5700 year-old human genome and oral microbiome from chewed birch pitch
Birch pitch is thought to have been used in prehistoric times as hafting material or antiseptic and tooth imprints suggest that it was chewed. Here, the authors report a 5,700 year-old piece of chewed birch pitch from Denmark from which they successfully recovered a complete ancient human genome and oral microbiome DNA.
- Theis Z. T. Jensen
- , Jonas Niemann
- & Hannes Schroeder
-
Article
| Open AccessClimate-human interaction associated with southeast Australian megafauna extinction patterns
Whether Australia’s Pleistocene megafauna extinctions were caused by climate change, humans, or both is debated. Here, the authors infer the spatio-temporal trajectories of regional extinctions and find that water availability mediates the relationship among climate, human migration and megafauna extinctions.
- Frédérik Saltré
- , Joël Chadoeuf
- & Corey J. A. Bradshaw
-
Article
| Open AccessEarly anthropoid femora reveal divergent adaptive trajectories in catarrhine hind-limb evolution
The proximal femur is key for understanding locomotion in primates. Here, the authors analyze the evolution of the proximal femur in catarrhines, including a new Aegyptopithecus fossil, and suggest that Old World monkeys and hominoids diverged from an ancestral state similar to Aegyptopithecus.
- Sergio Almécija
- , Melissa Tallman
- & Erik R. Seiffert
-
Article
| Open AccessDisease transmission and introgression can explain the long-lasting contact zone of modern humans and Neanderthals
Modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted in the Levant for tens of thousands of years before modern humans spread and replaced Neanderthals. Here, Greenbaum et al. develop a model showing that transmission of disease and genes can explain the maintenance and then collapse of this contact zone.
- Gili Greenbaum
- , Wayne M. Getz
- & Oren Kolodny
-
Article
| Open AccessDeciphering African late middle Pleistocene hominin diversity and the origin of our species
Late Middle Pleistocene (LMP) hominin fossils are scarce, limiting reconstruction of human evolution during this key period. Here, the authors use phylogenetic modelling to predict the modern human last common ancestor’s morphology and inform hypotheses of human origins by comparison to LMP fossils.
- Aurélien Mounier
- & Marta Mirazón Lahr
-
Article
| Open AccessNew Eocene primate from Myanmar shares dental characters with African Eocene crown anthropoids
Recent fossil findings have suggested that anthropoid primates originated in Asia before dispersing into Africa. Here, Jaeger and colleagues describe a new fossil Asian primate, Aseanpithecus myanmarensis, that they interpret as a closer relative of African crown anthropoids.
- Jean-Jacques Jaeger
- , Olivier Chavasseau
- & Yaowalak Chaimanee
-
Article
| Open AccessPalaeodemographic modelling supports a population bottleneck during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Iberia
The archaeological record provides large ensembles of radiocarbon dates which can be used to infer long-term changes in human demography. Here, the authors analyse the radiocarbon record of the Iberian peninsula, finding support for a bottleneck during the Last Glacial-Interglacial transition
- Javier Fernández-López de Pablo
- , Mario Gutiérrez-Roig
- & Sergi Lozano
-
Article
| Open AccessLate Pleistocene human genome suggests a local origin for the first farmers of central Anatolia
Central Anatolia harbored some of the earliest farming societies outside the Fertile Crescent of the Near East. Here, the authors report and analyze genome-wide data from a 15,000-year-old Anatolian hunter-gatherer and from seven Anatolian and Levantine early farmers, and suggest high genetic continuity between the hunter-gatherers and early farmers of Anatolia.
- Michal Feldman
- , Eva Fernández-Domínguez
- & Johannes Krause