Becoming Human

"The Origin of Species" is almost 150 — a fit survivor of the science canon even if not everyone has seen fit to jump from the Ark to the Beagle on the matter of evolution (three Republican presidential candidates, for example). But Darwin himself was slow to come to his ideas, and slower still to disclose them to a skeptical public.

Noted leader in the field of human origins research dies Dr. Howell led or participated in fossil-hunting excavations around the world, in Turkey, Spain and China, as well as Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.

The new science of the brain and DNA is rewriting the history of human origins is the somewhat grand claim appearing in the March 19 issue of Newsweek, now in the hands of subscribers and on newstands.

Archaeologists Find Signs Of Early Chimps' Tool Use

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Published: February 13, 2007

Additional fossils attributed to Homo floresiensis have been described. These fossils provided more evidence for an endemic species of small bodied Homo on Flores.

The new fossils are described in the following article:

Great apes, including chimpanzees and orangutans, have been observed using tools in the wild but until now tool use had not been observed in gorillas. Two new reports highlight the ability of gorillas to use tools in the wild. One report documents gorillas using sticks to test the depth of water and another report documents nut cracking behavior in a gorilla.

The genome of the chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, has been sequenced. Several other species, including humans, have had their genomes sequenced previously.