neanderthals
DNA shows Neanderthals mated with humans in two waves, not just once
[A]ncient humans mated with Neanderthals between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago, well before the more recent, and better-known mixing of the two ...
Massive genetic analysis shows how our ancestors ‘diversified, migrated and mixed’ around the world
A new study has provided the most comprehensive analysis of human genetic diversity to date, after the sequencing of 929 ...
Iraqi excavation rekindles debate over whether Neanderthals buried their dead
The excavation of an adult Neandertal’s partial upper-body skeleton in Iraqi Kurdistan has revived a decades-long debate over whether Neandertals intentionally buried ...
‘They weren’t just surviving’: Gibraltar caves give unprecedented peek into daily lives of last Neanderthals
Neanderthals were a resilient group. They existed for about 200,000 years longer than we modern humans (Homo sapiens) have been ...
‘Intrepid explorers’: Neanderthals hunted their way across thousands of miles in Europe
Neandertals were epic wanderers. These ancient hominids took a 3,000- to 4,000-kilometer hike from Eastern Europe to the Altai Mountains ...
Interbreeding with Neanderthals, Denisovans gave us an evolutionary boost, study says
When Homo sapiens left Africa and encountered the Homo neanderthalensis in Europe, the two ancient hominins did the obvious thing and had sex with ...
‘Strange’ decade gave us CRISPR, gene therapy advances and a Neanderthal genome
[H]ere, we present some of the innovations, both conceptual and technological, that stood out throughout the past decade. … In ...
Was it ‘bad luck’—not ancient humans—that drove Neanderthals to extinction?
Neanderthals may have gone extinct due to chance, and not, as some researchers previously thought, due to competition for resources ...
Humans ‘are not so special after all’: Neanderthals also knew how to start fires, evidence suggests
At some point, our ancestors harnessed the power of the flame to keep warm, cook food, produce new materials, shoo ...
Neanderthals were well suited for ‘explosive’ short sprints, not long-distance marathons
Homo sapiens are well-designed for loping along for long distances across open landscapes—especially when compared to Neanderthals. They had legs and ...
Inherited Neanderthal, Denisovan DNA may help with our metabolism, immunity and diet
Neanderthals and Denisovans went extinct some 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, but not before these closely related hominins interbred with ...
A peek into the sex lives of Neanderthals—they may have mated with ‘close kin’
A group of 13 Neanderthal remains detail a story of inbreeding, cannibalism ...
From hominids to animals: Who lived in Siberia’s famous Denisova Cave?
For thousands of years, Siberia’s Denisova Cave was home to various bands of Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans. But as ...
‘Beneficial archaic DNA’ still present and impacting humans today
Most Neanderthal variants exist in only around 2 percent of modern people of non-African descent. But some archaic DNA is ...
Neanderthal children footprints: In French quarry, largest group of hominin footprints ever found
They walked and perhaps played along the beach in a prehistoric world; we know this as archaeologists have discovered hundreds ...
‘Are Neanderthals just another version of us’?
As scientists peer further back in time and uncover evolutionary relationships in unprecedented detail, their findings are complicating the narrative ...
Believe it or not, Neanderthals were both athletic and artsy
They were sprinters. Previously believed to have been endurance runners, it is now thought Neanderthals favoured “more power sprint than ...
Reconstructing the Neanderthal throat—did they have their own language?
At the very least, in order for spoken language to be a possibility, a species has to have the right ...
DNA testing of ancient Gibraltar Neanderthal remains reveals sex, relationship with other European Neanderthals
Two skulls from Gibraltar were among the first Neanderthal remains ever found, and have since become some of the best-studied ...
How genes from long-extinct Neanderthals and Denisovans live on in modern human DNA
When the Neanderthal genome was first sequenced in 2010 and compared with ours, scientists noticed that genes from Homo neanderthalensis ...
Inside the brains of Neanderthals: Were they capable of ‘symbolic and abstract thinking’?
We know from the archaeological record that much of Neanderthal hunting, foraging, and toolmaking behavior was quite similar to that ...
400,000-year-old teeth suggest Neanderthals and humans split much earlier than thought
Our distant cousins just got a little more distant. A new study suggests that modern humans and our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, ...
Redefining the Neanderthal: Were they more sophisticated than we thought?
A new body of research has emerged that’s transformed our image of Neanderthals. Through advances in archaeology, dating, genetics, biological ...
Neanderthals may have been driven to cannibalism by rapid climate change
New research published [April 2019] in the Journal of Archaeological Science suggests the crushing impact of the Last Interglacial Period, also ...
Do humans have a ‘ghost’ ancestor? Artificial intelligence thinks so.
A third archaic human species may have been identified, this time with deep learning methods ...
Far from ape-like: Neanderthals walked upright, just like us
Neanderthals walked with an upright posture just like modern humans, according to a new analysis. Over the years, reconstructions of ancient ...
Could this fossilized footprint belong to one of the last Neanderthals ‘ever to walk the Earth’?
Researchers have discovered an array of fossilized footprints in an ancient sand dune in Gibraltar, the small British territory on ...
