By Ashik Siddique | May 14, 2013 12:17 AM EDT
The oldest fossil hominin ear bones ever found show partly modern human features—our ancient Australopithecus and Paranthropus ancestors had hearing abilities somewhere between ours and those of modern apes.
By Ashik Siddique | Apr 09, 2013 12:22 AM EDT
Are these talking monkeys? Wild gelada baboons, native to Ethiopia, make lip-smacking sounds while socializing that sound surprisingly like human speech.
By Ashik Siddique | Mar 28, 2013 07:02 PM EDT
Neanderthal-human hybrid fossil remains may have been identified- a skeletal jawbone found in Italy suggests evidence of gradual interbreeding.
By Ashik Siddique | Mar 22, 2013 08:33 PM EDT
New analysis challenges the timescale of two major events in human evolution– the first migration out of Africa, and the lifetime of mitochondrial Eve, the “mother of all humans” and last common ancestor for maternal lineages.
By Ashik Siddique | Mar 22, 2013 06:00 PM EDT
The genes that lead to autoimmune inflammatory diseases like MS, Crohn’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis may have actually benefited our early ancestors– more evidence for the hygiene hypothesis.
By Christine Hsu | Feb 01, 2013 10:44 AM EST
A leading scientist says that the human phenomenon of emotional crying is hugely important and developed as a way for humans to communicate how they feel before the emergence of language.
By Makini Brice | Jan 25, 2013 05:52 PM EST
Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle have discovered that HIV’s origin can be traced back 5 to 12 million years.
By Christine Hsu | Jan 23, 2013 09:19 AM EST
A leading geneticist from Harvard Medical School has created a master plan to bring back the long-extinct Neanderthals. All he needs is an "extremely adventurous female human" to serve as surrogate mother to deliver a cloned Neanderthal baby.
By Christine Hsu | Jan 22, 2013 12:22 PM EST
A DNA analysis of a 40,000-year-old human skeleton dug up in China has revealed genetic clues to the Stone Age evolution, according to a new study. After analyzing the genetic material extracted from the ancient leg bone found in a cave near Beijing, scientists were able to link some of the earliest modern humans to settle in China to the people living in the region today.
By Makini Brice | Jan 09, 2013 04:53 PM EST
A study revealed that our hands might have evolved to wrinkle in order to grip wet objects.
By Christine Hsu | Jan 03, 2013 01:56 PM EST
New study proves that you really can't have the brains and the brawn, after researchers found that a boost in brain size and cognitive ability comes at an expensive price.
By Christine Hsu | Dec 26, 2012 03:56 PM EST
Monkeys aren't particularly generous, but a new study revealed that when they do act selflessly, a specific part of their brains keeps count of these kindnesses.
By Amber Moore | Dec 26, 2012 05:15 PM EST
Environmental changes that occurred over two million years ago may have lead to human evolution.
By Makini Brice | Jan 04, 2013 04:25 PM EST
Human hands might have evolved not just for the manual dexterity needed to create tools and paint masterpieces, but for another, less elegant purpose: punching.
By Christine Hsu | Dec 21, 2012 09:51 AM EST
Your hands didn't evolve just for the sake of making tools, they're shaped the way they are for you to make a fist to punch others in a fight.
