March, April, and May of 2015 have seen a number of very important discoveries in the study of human origins. Here is a quick recap of the studies I found most interest. In early March, researchers from Arizona State working in Ethiopia found and described a 2.8 million year old jaw bone from a species … More A Big Few Months for Human Evolution Research
It is not uncommon among social mammals to engage in division of labor between the sexes. Female lions do all of the hunting; males loaf around and occasionally fight other males. Chimpanzees have a strictly male-dominated social hierarchy, while bonobos employ a matriarchal structure in which dominance is enforced by females. These sex roles can … More Did Neanderthals Have Gender Roles in their Division of Labor?
Originally posted on After Big Bang:
The skull, found in 2009 in a cave known as Tam Pa Ling in the Annamite Mountains of present-day Laos, and reported in 2012 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the oldest modern human fossil found in Southeast Asia. Its discovery pushed back the date…
Humans like to think of ourselves as the only animal that speaks to each other using language. It’s one of the things that “separates us from the animals,” so the saying goes. However, we already know that lots of other animals communicate with each other using vocal-auditory communication. Further, we’re beginning to learn that other … More Did Neanderthals Speak?
Originally posted on After Big Bang:
New research suggests pre-Homo human ancestral species, such as Australopithecus africanus, used human-like hand postures much earlier than was previously thought. The distinctly human ability for forceful precision (e.g. when turning a key) and power “squeeze” gripping (e.g. when using a hammer) is linked to two key evolutionary transitions…
Summary Anatomically modern humans first appeared around 200,000 years ago, but small changes in skull shape continued until around 50,000 years ago. A new study has revealed that several of the changes in the shape of the human face can be explained by a gradual drop in the levels of circulating testosterone. High testosterone is … More Did a Drop in Testosterone Civilize Modern Humans?
Summary Using enhanced dating techniques, a new study found that Neanderthals and Modern Humans co-existed in Europe for thousands of years, much longer than previously thought This opens up new questions about how Neanderthals and Modern Humans interacted with each other. Neanderthals may have had more influence on modern humans than previously thought, including trade, … More Modern Humans and Neanderthals co-existed in Europe for thousands of years
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