July 17th, 2019
Reexamined fossils yield startling results
July 17, 2019Two fossils found in Apidima Cave southern Greece, in the early 70s have yielded startling results after undergoing reanalysis, according to a paper published in this week’s edition of the journal Nature and named Apidima 1 and 2. The paper is entitled “Apidima Cave fossils provide earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Eurasia” by Harvati et al.
May 4th, 2019
New high altitude hominin found
May 04, 2019A widely reported hominin jawbone, found in a Tibetan cave and dated to 160,000 years ago, was announced this week. The fossil jawbone was identified as" Dennisovan", according to the investigative team. The dating of the jawbone was ascertained by the UT (uranium-thorium) method.
This fossil is significant in a number of respects:
April 13th, 2019
New hominin species announced
April 13, 2019Announced in the April 10 edition of the journal Nature is a new species of genis Homo, named Homo luzonensis. The attribution is based on a small number of post cranial bones and seven teeth. The latter show both primitive and derived characteristics. The remains are dated to approximately 67,000 years ago by the Uranium thorium (UT) method.
December 16th, 2018
Earliest known North African artifacts
December 16, 2018Plio-Pleistocene artifacts have been found in Algeria, according to a paper in the journal Science this week. Heretofore, late Pliocene-early Pleistocene stone tools were known from East Africa exclusively. In a paper headed “1.9-million- and 2.4-million-year-old artifacts and stone tool–cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria”, Sahnouni et, al. disclose their findings.
November 25th, 2018
Cranial injiries compared
November 25, 2018Widespread cranial injuries characterized both Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans and thus are not unique to American football, a study in the journal Nature concludes.
November 25th, 2018
Symbolic Neamderthal artifacts?
November 25, 2018Cueva de los Aviones is a cave system in Spain in which have been found decorated sea shells. These have been dated to 115,000 years ago and are attributed to he Neanderthal occupiers of the site, it was announced in the journal Science Advances of 22 February 2018.
Dating was accomplished by Uranium series technology.
November 11th, 2018
Paleolithic cave art in Borneo
November 11, 2018A paper appearing in the journal Nature this week announces the discovery of figurative cave art dated to approximately 40,000 years ago. In addition there was also found a hand stencil (the outline of a human hand) dated to 51,000 years ago. These are the earliest finds of figurative rock art, according to the authors of the paper, M. Albert et al.
October 27th, 2018
Dating of Israel fossil find questioned
October 27, 2018Last January we reported the discovery of a maxilla found in Israel which placed the arrival of Homo sapiens in Israel, out of Africa, 50,000 years earlier than understood from earlier evidence. Our report read, “Previously scientists postulated the earliest Homo sapiens emerged from Africa into the Levant was 120,
July 14th, 2018
Oldest non African Stone tools found in China
July 14, 2018A scientific paper and accompanying commentary in the July 11 issue of the journal Nature report the discovery in southern China of stone tools dated to 2.1 million years ago. For many years the oldest evidence of human ancestors outside of Africa were found at Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia and dated around 1.8 million years ago (mya).
June 23rd, 2018
Modelling Neanderthal brains - on a small scale
June 23, 2018In the journal Science this week, staff writer John Cohen, in a repoort entitled "Neanderthal brain organoids come to life", summarizes work being done on replicating Neanderthal brains, on an extremely small scale, at two research labs. Quoting from the article,