Prehistory
Prehistory, the vast period of time before written records or human documentation, includes the Neolithic Revolution, Neanderthals and Denisovans, Stonehenge, the Ice Age and more.
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The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, or the K-T event, is the name given to the die-off of the dinosaurs that took place some 65.5 million years ago. For many years, paleontologists believed this event was caused by climate change that interrupted the dinosaurs’ food supply, but later, scientists discovered iridium, suggesting a comet, asteroid or meteor impact event may have caused the mass extinction.
Our human ancestors may have lost 98.7 percent of their population around 900,000 to 800,000 years ago, according to genetic research.
Some of the oldest known art may hint at the beginning of language development, while later examples portray narratives with human and animal figures.
More than 3,200 years ago, a vast, interconnected civilization thrived. Then it suddenly collapsed. What happened?
Unearthing Dinosaurs
Unearthing Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs can reveal fascinating details of how life was 65 million years ago. But unearthing them can prove to be challenging.
3 Bronze Age Weapons
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These apex predators ate whales, dolphins and maybe other megalodons.
An anthropologist has spent years investigating reports of ape-like creatures on Flores Island.
Fossils are reshaping what we know about human bipedalism.
Hand stencils, animal drawings and narrative paintings make up some of the oldest known cave art.
Some of the oldest known art may hint at the beginning of language development, while later examples portray narratives with human and animal figures.
Prehistoric humans around the world figured out how to funnel game for easier kills.
Africa wasn’t the only stomping ground for our human forebears.
Why go to the trouble of tracking and killing an animal when a saber-tooth cat can do the job instead?
Archaeologists have found remarkable human-made objects dating back hundreds of thousands (and even millions) of years.
The Stone Age marks a period of prehistory in which humans used primitive stone tools. Lasting roughly 2.5 million years, the Stone Age ended around 5,000 years ago when humans began working with metal and making tools and weapons from bronze.
How does our modern take on the Paleo diet compare to what our ancestors actually ate?
The discovery of the Lascaux cave in France helped prove that Stone Age humans could be great artists—and technological innovators.
The Bronze Age marked the first time humans started to work with metal. Bronze tools and weapons soon replaced earlier stone versions. Ancient Sumerians in the Middle East may have been the first people to enter the Bronze Age.
