Evolution, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 26, 2016

Rare Charles Darwin Letter Fails to Sell at Auction

A handwritten letter by famed naturalist Charles Darwin to a British marine biologist was put up for auction yesterday (Feb. 25) but failed to sell, according to Nate D. Sanders Auctions, the Los Angeles-based auction house that arranged the sale. The letter, which was originally listed with a minimum bid...

Mar 9, 2016

Nom Nom! Paleo Diet Helped Humans Evolve Speech

Scientists who forced volunteers to chew raw goat flesh (yes, chew) have found that such meat-gnawing likely caused human teeth and jaws to shrink throughout our evolutionary history. Slicing raw flesh into smaller pieces and then chewing would have helped ancient hominins spend less time and energy eating than their...

Mar 29, 2016

Trace Your Ancient Human Ancestry with New Map

A new map allows us to trace our ancient human ancestry, revealing how extensively past interbreeding has affected people alive today. The genetic analysis behind the map's creation strengthens earlier findings that modern humans migrating out of Africa and interbred with the populations they encountered in Europe and Asia. These...

Mar 30, 2016

Did Hobbits Live Alongside Modern Humans?

The extinct human lineage nicknamed the hobbit for its miniature body may have vanished soon before or soon after modern humans arrived on the hobbits' island home, rather than living alongside modern humans for thousands of years as was previously thought, researchers say. By using new techniques to date hobbit...

Apr 10, 2016

Why Neanderthals Likely Fathered Few Kids with Modern Humans

Humans today often carry around a small chunk of DNA from Neanderthals, suggesting we interbred with our closest known extinct relatives at some point in our history. So why isn't there more Neanderthal DNA in modern humans? Turns out, the Y chromosome may have been key in keeping the two...

May 2, 2016

Why Are Human Babies So Helpless?

Some animals come into this world more self-sufficient than others. Many can fend for themselves without any parental supervision almost immediately — picture baby sea turtles hatching on the sand and then somehow finding their way to the ocean. Other animals, like newborn giraffe calves, are able to clamber upright...

Jun 8, 2016

Miniature 'Hobbit' Humans Had Even Smaller Ancestors

Ancestors of the mysterious extinct human lineage nicknamed hobbits may have been discovered, a new study finds. The newfound individuals may have been even littler than the hobbits, and date much further back in time (from some 700,000 years ago), scientists added. This suggests these ancestors may have shrunk rapidly...

Jun 29, 2016

Newfound Human Species Suggests Africa Was Evolutionary Melting Pot

The most recently discovered extinct human species may have lived less than 1 million years ago, researchers have discovered. This finding suggests that a diverse range of human species might have lived at the same time in Africa, just as they might have in Asia, researchers said. In 2015, scientists...

Jul 13, 2016

1.5-Million-Year-Old Footprints Reveal Human Ancestor Walked Like Us

The human ancestor Homo erectus may have walked similarly to the way modern humans do today, new research shows. In 2009, paleontologists discovered human-like footprints near the eastern shores of Lake Turkana in Ileret, Kenya. The fossilized tracks suggested similarities to modern human feet, including an arch, a rounded heel...

Jul 21, 2016

Human Gut Microbes Took Root Before We Were Human

The relationship between humans and the bacteria in our guts extends far back into the past — to the time before modern humans even existed, a new study finds. Microbes in two bacterial families — Bacteroidaceae and Bifidobacteriaceae, which are present in humans and African apes — likely colonized the...

Aug 29, 2016

Human Ancestor 'Lucy' May Have Died After Falling from Tree

Lucy, the iconic 3.18-million-year-old early human, literally dropped dead, according to new research that determined she died of injuries sustained after falling from a tall tree. Since Lucy's species Australopithecus afarensis existed within a transitional period when our primate ancestors evolved from a more tree-dwelling lifestyle to a terrestrial one,...

Sep 21, 2016

Earth Wobbles May Have Driven Ancient Humans Out of Africa

Ancient human migrations out of Africa may have been driven by wobbles in Earth's orbit and tilt that led to dramatic swings in climate, a new study finds. Modern humans first appeared in Africa about 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. It remains a mystery as to why it then took...

Sep 21, 2016

Mysterious Branch of Humanity Possibly Discovered

A group of humans migrating out of Africa some 40,000 to 70,000 years ago mingled with an as-yet unknown branch of humanity, researchers say. Modern humans originated about 150,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa. However, scientists have long debated when and how the modern human lineage spread out of...

Jul 10, 2017

200,000-Year-Old 'Baby Tooth' Reveals Clues About Mysterious Human Lineage

DNA in a fossil from a young girl has revealed that a mysterious extinct human lineage occupied the middle of Asia longer than previously thought, allowing more potential interbreeding with Neanderthals, a new study finds. Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineage, other hominins — which include modern...

Jul 13, 2017

Link to the Past: Evidence of Humanity's Oldest Ropes Unearthed

Perfect forms carved in ivory reveal humanity's oldest set of ropes, research suggests. At first glance, the discovery in Germany's Hohle Fels cave looked like it could be the mock-up for a 42,000-year-old set of brass knuckles: four carefully carved small holes placed close together on an 8-inch-long (20 centimeters)...