Human Evolution

The Neanderthal Renaissance

Handprints on a cave wall, crumbs from a meal: the new science of Neanderthals radically recasts the meaning of humanity.

Aeon

Wild Beast Within

Barbara J. King considers how cruelty made us human.

The Times Literary Supplement

Artificial Intelligence Study of Human Genome Finds Unknown Human Ancestor

The genetic footprint of a “ghost population” may match that of a Neanderthal and Denisovan hybrid fossil found in Siberia.

Smithsonian

Trouble With Decluttering? Being Dependent on Stuff Is Part of Being Human, Stanford Scholar Says

Ian Hodder, Stanford professor of anthropology, argues that at the heart of humanity’s history is a dependency on objects and things.

Stanford News

Cave That Housed Neanderthals and Denisovans Challenges View of Cultural Evolution

Researchers have deduced which early human species occupied Denisova Cave and when, drawing surprising conclusions about who made the sophisticated artifacts found there.

Scientific American

How Violence Pointed to Virtue

Primatologist Richard Wrangham’s new book examines the strange relationship between good and evil.

The Harvard Gazette

Humans: The Domesticated Primates

As we became more peaceable, our bodies evolved along the lines of other tamed animals.

The Wall Street Journal

Three Big Insights Into Our African Origins

John Hawks delivered a lecture to the American Society for Human Genetics, focusing on the African record of human origins.

Medium

Narrower Skulls, Oblong Brains: How Neanderthal DNA Still Shapes Us

Two genes inherited from our evolutionary cousins may affect skull shape and brain size even today. What that means for human behavior is a mystery.

The New York Times

Earliest Evidence for Humans on the ‘Roof of the World’ Found

Thousands of slate artifacts found on the Tibetan Plateau showcase the resiliency of early humans as they fanned out of Africa.

National Geographic

On Being Human: Mythic and Scientific Perspectives

A dialogue with ICE at Dartmouth director Marcelo Gleiser and three guests: physicist and novelist Tasneem Husain, anthropology professor Jeremy DeSilva, and planetary scientist David Grinspoon.

Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement

A Blended Family: Her Mother Was Neanderthal, Her Father Something Else Entirely

Genetic analysis of bones discovered in a Siberian cave hint that the prehistoric world may have been filled with “hybrid” humans.

The New York Times

The New Story of Humanity’s Origins in Africa

Several new discoveries suggest that our species didn’t arise from a single point in space. Instead, the entire continent was our cradle.

The Atlantic

Chimpanzees Can’t Tell Us Much About Being Human

Although there is merit in recognizing how we resemble our primate relatives, sometimes we need to understand what sets our species apart.

SAPIENS

Beyond Epigenetics

A pair of evolutionary biologists takes a closer look at nongenetic inheritance.

Science

How Did Homo Sapiens Evolve?

Genetic and fossil evidence challenges current models of modern human evolution.

Science

Why Grandmothers May Hold The Key To Human Evolution

What made us human might have had less to do with men out hunting, and a lot more to do with what was going on at home — with grandmas and babies.

Goats & Soda, NPR

Tiny Brains of Extinct Human Relative Had Complex Features

Scientists studying skull fragments from the extinct human relative recently discovered in South Africa suggest that it may have exhibited complex behavior.

The Human Instinct: A Conversation with Ken Miller

Too many people think evolution demeans our species. But maybe evolutionary theory indicates the opposite: our special place among life on Earth.

Behavioral Scientist

Speaking of Evolution, in Non-Threatening Tones

For two years, researchers from the Smithsonian traveled the country to discuss — calmly — the science of human evolution. Here’s why.

Undark

Humans May Have a Surprising Evolutionary Advantage: Expressive Eyebrows

Scientists still aren’t sure why early humans had such weird skulls — or why we don’t.

Popular Science