Human ancestors used different forms of bipedalism

According to a new study, our Australopithecus ancestors may have used different approaches to getting around on two feet. The new findings, co-authored by Boston University researchers Jeremy DeSilva , assistant professor of anthropology, and Kenneth Holt, assistant professor of physical therapy, appear in the latest issue of the journal Science in an article titled "The Lower Limb and Mechanics of Walking in Australopithecus sediba." The paper is one of six published this week in Science that represent the culmination of more than four years of research into the anatomy of Australopithecus sediba (Au. sediba). The two-million-year-old fossils, discovered in Malapa cave in South Africa in 2008, are some of the most complete early human ancestral remains ever discovered.

New species of primate from 35 mln years ago found in Spain

A new species of primate from 35 million years ago has been discovered by researchers with the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology Michel Crusafont (Icp) in Sossis, in the area of Pallars Jussa' in the Llerida province.

Scientists Find Groundbreaking New Surprises in Examination of Early Human Ancestor

After four years of meticulous study, new revelations about the early hominin could be a gamechanger in evolutionary research.

First Love Child of Human, Neanderthal Found

The skeletal remains of an individual living in northern Italy 40,000-30,000 years ago are believed to be that of a human/Neanderthal hybrid, according to a paper in PLoS ONE.

Out of Africa date brought forward

By Lin Edwards

(Phys.org) —A study on human mitochondrial DNA has led to a new estimate of the time at which humans first began to migrate out of Africa, which was much later than previously thought.

Fossil human traces line to modern Asians

Researchers have been able to trace a line between some of the earliest modern humans to settle in China and people living in the region today.

A Relative from the Tianyuan Cave: Humans Living 40,000 Years Ago Likely Related to Many Present-Day Asians and Native Americans

Jan. 21, 2013 — Ancient DNA has revealed that humans living some 40,000 years ago in the area near Beijing were likely related to many present-day Asians and Native Americans.

The First Butchers?

by Ann Gibbons on 11 August 2010, 1:01 PM
Marks on the bones of two antelopes uncovered in Ethiopia may indicate that hominids were using sharp stones to butcher their meat 3.4 million years ago. If so, the discovery represents the earliest evidence of stone tool use by a human ancestor. "This find will definitely force us to revise our textbooks on human evolution, since it pushes the evidence for tool use and meat eating in our family back by nearly a million years," says paleoanthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Oldest Skeleton of Lucy's Species Unveiled

by Ann Gibbons on 22 June 2010, 2:56 PM
Researchers have unveiled the second oldest skeleton of a possible human ancestor, a 3.6-million-year-old male of the species Australopithecus afarensis. The roughly 40% complete skeleton has been nicknamed Kadanuumuu, which means "big man" in the Afar language of the Afar Depression of Ethiopia where it was found. "It was huge—a big man, with long legs," says lead author Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a paleoanthropologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio.