Tag

Human Evolution

All articles tagged with #human evolution

science3 days ago•13 min saved

Neanderthal romance debunked by DNA, archaeology says

A new analysis cautions that the uneven distribution of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans cannot prove romantic attraction or social life between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The proposed 'partner preference' is a possible, not definitive, explanation, with biology, migration, and sex-biased demography also at play. Archaeology from El Sidrón suggests female mobility (patrilocality), while Goyet hints at violence or cannibalism, showing that social structures can shape genetic signals. Overall, genetics alone can’t reconstruct Neanderthal society and must be interpreted alongside archaeological and anthropological context.

via ScienceDaily|

#anthropology #archaeology #genetics

science5 days ago•12 min saved

Heat and endurance: humans outlast horses over long, hot distances

Humans sprint poorly against horses, but over long, hot distances our continuous sweating and decoupled breathing let us keep cooling and keep moving, giving us a surprising endurance advantage. Horses can outrun us in a dash, yet their large bodies and gait limit heat shedding, so with enough heat exposure a human can outlast a galloping horse. The idea supports the endurance-running hypothesis and persistence hunting as possible drivers of human evolution, though it remains debated and not universally accepted. Evidence cited includes the Wales Man vs Horse races and ethnographic examples, while critics argue the centrality of heat-driven endurance may be overstated.

via Space Daily|

#endurance-running #human-evolution #note-extra-tag-not-allowed

science11 days ago•49 min saved

Ardi's Feet Reframe the Dawn of Human Walking

A 4.4‑million‑year‑old female fossil named Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus) shows a mosaic of ape‑like and human‑like traits, including a grasping big toe and an ankle bone adapted for weight transfer, suggesting upright walking evolved from an African ape‑like ancestor and predating Lucy by about a million years.

via Yahoo|

#ardi #ardipithecus-ramidus #bipedalism

science15 days ago•114 min saved

Northwestern European Neanderthals Were Genetically Diverse, Challenging Inbreeding Doom

A new study of Neanderthal DNA from Belgium and France shows late Neanderthals in northwestern Europe were more genetically diverse and faced little inbreeding, existing as a large, interconnected population split into at least four groups. The genome from a high-quality Neanderthal sequence revealed no evidence of recent Neanderthal–modern human mating in these samples, suggesting that reduced genetic diversity and inbreeding were not the primary drivers of Neanderthal extinction. The findings imply multiple interconnected Neanderthal populations persisted across the region, challenging the idea that inbreeding alone doomed them.

via Live Science|

#ancient-dna #genetics #human-evolution

science15 days ago•4 min saved

Meat-Driven Growth Spurts Shaped Early Humans, Study Finds

A new study analyzing 386 hominin fossils across 21 species and 1,000 models suggests body size rose steadily in early humans until about 2 million years ago, when a shift to higher meat intake and improved bipedalism coincided with a rapid ~50-pound increase. This growth likely boosted long-distance travel, hunting, and predator defense, helping Homo erectus and Homo ergaster reach modern-like weights, though some lineages like Homo floresiensis remained small. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, refines how we understand the pace and drivers of human size evolution.

via New York Post|

#australopithecus #bipedalism #homo-erectus

science16 days ago•6 min saved

Andean Arsenic Tolerance: A Genetic Adaptation Near AS3MT

In San Antonio de los Cobres, Argentina, DNA from 124 women and their urine arsenic metabolites show variants near the AS3MT gene that appear to improve arsenic detoxification, shifting metabolism toward excretable forms. These variants are more common in this high-arsenic Andean population than in comparable groups, suggesting long-term natural selection has contributed to arsenic tolerance. The findings, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, provide evidence of human adaptation to a toxic environmental chemical and hint that similar signals may exist in other Andean communities.

via ScienceAlert|

#adaptation #andes #arsenic

sciencearchaeology16 days ago•116 min saved

Proteomics suggests all Homo naledi skeletons from Rising Star cave are female

A proteomic analysis of 20 Homo naledi teeth from the Rising Star cave in South Africa found no AMELY (male) markers, suggesting all examined skeletons are female. The finding includes specimens once thought to be male (e.g., DH1 and Neo) and raises questions about sex representation or a possible AMELY deletion, with researchers noting this is a surprising result that requires more sampling to understand the biology and evolution of the species. The study, published in Cell (2026), also highlights shared protein variants with Paranthropus robustus and underscores the potential of ancient proteins to illuminate sex in extinct hominins.

via Live Science|

#homo-naledi #human-evolution #proteomics

human-history16 days ago•17 min saved

Diverse, Connected Neanderthals Challenge the Extinction Narrative

A 27-Neanderthal genome study from Belgium and France shows late Neanderthals were genetically diverse and part of connected regional populations, challenging the idea of a single declining group; they carry no clear rise in harmful mutations, and while Neanderthals contributed DNA to modern humans, there was little reciprocal gene flow, highlighting regional extinction patterns and a more nuanced history.

via Gizmodo|

#ancient-dna #human-evolution #human-history

science20 days ago•6 min saved

Culture May Be Rewriting Human Evolution Beyond Our Genes

New research argues that culture and technology are now the dominant forces shaping human evolution, reducing selective pressure on genes as innovations solve biological challenges faster than genetic change can, with potential long-term implications for health, society, and how we think about our species’ future.

via ScienceAlert|

#anthropology #culture #evolution

science22 days ago•113 min saved

Denisovan DNA still influences Oceanian immunity, but researchers remain unsure why

A large, first-of-its-kind map of Denisovan-derived DNA in Oceanian populations identified about 3,127 variants that still influence immune-system genes today; many are unique to Oceania, and natural selection increased their frequency in Near Oceania, suggesting Denisovan DNA helped defend against novel pathogens, though the exact benefits vary and researchers say more Oceanian genome sequencing is needed to fully understand health implications.

via Live Science|

#denisovan #genomics #human-evolution

anthropology24 days ago•25 min saved

Near Oceania’s Ancient Genome: Denisovan Heritage Deep in Pacific DNA

Researchers sequenced 177 high-coverage genomes from 12 Near Oceanian populations and found that this region harbors some of the oldest human DNA, including a rich Denisovan legacy from at least three Denisovan-like groups. Near Oceanian genomes contain about 2.5 times more archaic DNA than Europeans and far more Denisovan DNA than East Asians, with high-frequency archaic variants linked to immunity and skeletal development, suggesting multiple interbreeding events and adaptive benefits. The findings reshape our understanding of Denisovans and human evolution and have implications for medical research in Oceanian populations.

via ZME Science|

#anthropology #archaic-dna #denisovan

archaeology1 month ago•3 min saved

Ancient Ashes in South Africa Push Fire Use Back Nearly 2 Million Years

A study of Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa has found charred mammal bones dating to about 1.07–1.79 million years ago, potentially the oldest evidence of human fire use and pushing the timeline back by hundreds of thousands of years. The bones were dated using magnetostratigraphy and cosmogenic burial dating, and burn evidence was confirmed via bone luminescence. While not proving cooking or a defined pyrotechnology breakthrough, the findings suggest repeated fire use that could have shaped hominin behavior, ecology, and evolution during the early Acheulean era.

via New York Post|

#archaeology #fire #human-evolution

space1 month ago•12 min saved

Andromeda's Light Lets Us See a 2.5-Million-Year Moment

Seeing Andromeda with the naked eye means viewing light that began its journey about 2.5 million years ago—the era when early Homo in Africa were first making stone tools; Andromeda (M31) is the Local Group’s largest galaxy and the farthest naked-eye object at 2.5 million light-years, approaching the Milky Way at ~110 km/s with a predicted merger in ~4.5 billion years; the visible glow is the bright core, while deep images reveal hundreds of millions of stars, illustrating astronomy as time travel into the past.

via Space Daily|

#andromeda #astronomy #human-evolution

science1 month ago•5 min saved

Ancient East Asian Hominins Invented Complex Stone Tools During a Harsh Ice Age

New dating of a Lingjing, China rib crystal shows 146,000-year-old stone cores and flakes were made by an archaic human relative (Homo juluensis) during a harsh ice age, revealing planning and advanced stone‑knapping skills. The calcite dating revises theTools’ age from a warmer period to a cold glacial era, suggesting sophisticated technology arose under environmental stress and indicating broader East Asian implications for Paleolithic innovation.

via ScienceAlert|

#homo-juluensis #human-evolution #ice-age

science1 month ago•13 min saved

Legs Before Hands: Evolution's Leg-Driven Route to Right-Handedness

A new PLOS Biology study analyzing 2,025 primates across 41 species argues that humans’ near-90% right-handedness arises from the combined effects of rapid brain growth and a long leg-to-arm ratio from sustained bipedalism: with legs freed from locomotion, the hands could specialize in manipulation, and the larger brain provided the cognitive substrate, making humans the extreme outlier among primates.

via Space Daily|

#bipedalism #brain-size #handedness