hominin

The simple act of chewing gum can raise the body’s metabolic rate by as much as 15 percent, a study finds.

Coppens, alongside Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb, found a 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis fossil in the 1970s.

A newer dating technique using cosmogenic isotopes finds Australopithecus remains from the Sterkfontein caves to be about 1 million years older than previous estimates, potentially changing scientists’ understanding of humanity’s origins.

Taieb recognized the potential importance of the Hadar Formation, where remains of the hominin Australopithecus afarensis were found only a few years later.

Researchers found the relatively high proportion of DNA from a hominin cousin—nearly 5 percent—when they scanned more than 1,000 genomes from 118 distinct ethnic groups.

A massive, well-preserved skull discovered in China in the 1930s belongs to a new species called Homo longi, researchers report, but experts remain skeptical about the evidence.

Impressions that ancient brains left in fossilized skulls reveal that the first human ancestors to migrate out of Africa had much more primitive brains than previously thought.

Sharp drops in global temperatures helped seal the fate of three extinct hominin species, including our close relatives, the Neanderthals, according to thousands of archaeological specimens and a model of past climate conditions.

A selective advantage may have led the modern human Y chromosome to sweep through the Neanderthal population after it was introduced via interbreeding more than 100,000 years ago.

Africa’s sparse fossil record alone cannot reveal our species’ evolutionary history.

Modern human genomes and bones left behind from ancient hominins in Africa tell a complex story about the origins of our species.

A paleontologist at the National Museums of Kenya is spearheading an effort to make 3-D reconstructions of the institution’s fossils available internationally.

A tooth and six bone fragments are the oldest confirmed Homo sapiens fossils in Europe.

Scans of eight fossilized adult and infant Australopithecus afarensis skulls reveal a prolonged period of brain growth during development that may have set the stage for extended childhood learning in later hominins.

An analysis of fossilized teeth sheds light on the evolutionary relationships between Pleistocene hominins.

A study points to the existence of an ancient human relative that interbred with Homo sapiens.

A mass death event claimed the hominins’ lives and likely resulted from changing environmental conditions.

The skull changed shape in different ways than the brain during evolution, according to a new comparative study.

From skin color to immunity, human biology is linked to our archaic ancestry.