anthropology
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Scientists Reconstruct 12-Million-Year-Old Ape Skull
A team of paleoanthropologists has assembled the only known cranium of the extinct ape Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, revealing how the ape’s face looked. The reconstruction allows them to place Pierolapithecus on the hominid family tree and improves our understanding of how the ape moved around Spain some 12 million years ago. Pierolapithecus was first described in…
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Virgin Galactic Flight Carries Precious Hominin Fossils to Space’s Edge, Sparking Controversy
In a move that is garnering considerable criticism from the scientific community, a recent Virgin Galactic mission transported two ancient hominin fossils to the edge of space. Launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico on Friday, May 8, the V.S.S. Unity spaceplane carried fragments from Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, hominin species fundamental to understanding…
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Paleogeneticist Svante Pääbo Picks Up Nobel Prize for Human Origins Research
The Nobel Assembly today awarded Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research into human origins.
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Child Skull of Enigmatic Ancient Human Found in South African Cave
It’s tiny, incomplete, and undeniably awesome. Named “Leti,” this is the first known skull belonging to a Homo naledi child — a fossil that’s shedding new light onto this mysterious group of extinct humans.