Early Humans

Hunter-gatherers were prehistoric nomadic groups that harnessed the use of fire, developed intricate knowledge of plant life and refined technology for hunting and domestic purposes as they spread from Africa to Asia, Europe and beyond.  From African hominins of 2 million years ...read more

The newly published paper is the first extensive DNA study of Aboriginal Australians, according to the University of Cambridge. Working in close collaboration with indigenous Australian elders and leaders, an international team of researchers obtained permission to extract DNA ...read more

The discovery of Lucy’s partial skeleton represented a major breakthrough in the study of ancient human ancestors, enabling scientists to establish that early hominids like Australopithecus afarensis learned to walk upright before their brains grew larger. Though Lucy’s feet, ...read more

Archaeological studies have found that human colonization of North America by the so-called Clovis culture dates back more than 13,000 years ago, and recent archaeological evidence suggests that people could have been on the continent 14,700 years ago—and possibly even several ...read more

Newly popular in health circles, the Paleo diet was created back in the 1970s by gastroenterologist Walter Voegtlin. He was the first to suggest that eating like our Paleolithic ancestors could make modern humans healthier. A return to the diet of our forebears, according to ...read more

The study, published in the journal Science, linked Ötzi with his living relatives by tracing a rare genetic mutation on the Y-chromosome. The mutation, known as G-L91, is passed down along the male line, and scientists at Austria’s Institute for Forensic Medicine have been using ...read more

During the 18th and 19th centuries, in the swiftly industrializing countries of Europe and North America, tuberculosis–or the dreaded “consumption”–reached epic proportions. It was the leading cause of death among all age groups in the Western world until the early 20th century, ...read more

In human “natural fertility societies,” meaning groups that don’t use birth control, women breastfeed their children for an average of 27 months—until toddlers reach 2 years and a few months in age. While this may seem like a decent amount of time, it’s only a tiny fraction of ...read more

Fire control changed the course of human evolution, allowing our ancestors to stay warm, cook food, ward off predators and venture into harsh climates. It also had important social and behavioral implications, encouraging groups of people to gather together and stay up late. ...read more

[slideshow exclude=”4153″]Located in the Dordogne region of France, the massive Rouffignac cave complex has captivated tourists and scholars with its vivid drawings of mammoths, rhinoceroses and horses for centuries. In 1956, a decade after its deep caverns harbored Resistance ...read more

Taller and more robust than modern humans but with a smaller cranial capacity, Homo erectus appeared roughly 2 million years ago and spread across Africa, Asia and parts of southern Europe before vanishing from the fossil record some 70,000 years ago. Thought to be our direct ...read more