Modern humanity’s most famous cousins, the Neanderthals, may have had a clever, if unappealing, dietary trick for survival: maggots. Research out today posits these creepy crawly fly larvae provided Neanderthals an ample source of essential nitrogen and fat. Scientists at Purdue University, the University of Michigan, and others conducted the study, published Friday in Science […]
Neanderthals Spread Across Asia With Surprising Speed—and Now We Know How
Neanderthals and modern humans split from a common ancestor around 500,000 years ago, with Neanderthals leaving Africa for Europe and Asia long before modern humans joined them hundreds of thousands of years later. There, Neanderthals dispersed as far as Spain and Siberia. Our prehistoric cousins likely first reached Asia around 190,000 to 130,000 years ago, […]
Did a Neanderthal Spot a Face in This Rock 43,000 Years Ago—and Leave a Fingerprint Behind?
While digging inside a cave in the Spanish city of Segovia, archaeologists uncovered an unusual rock. The hand-sized stone naturally resembled an elongated face, and featured a spot of red pigment made from ochre right on the tip of what may be considered its nose. “We were all thinking the same thing and looking at […]
Neanderthal Faces Were Bigger Than Ours. Turns Out We’re the Weirdos
While closely related, Neanderthals and modern humans split from our last common ancestor between 650,000 and 500,000 years ago and evolved into distinct species. Among other contrasts, Neanderthal fossils show that our faces developed strikingly different shapes: modern human faces are generally smaller and have more delicate features. The reason for this difference has stumped […]
Neanderthals and Early Humans Hung Out Way More Than We Thought, Study Finds
A team’s investigation of ancient human burials in Israel’s Tinshemet Cave has revealed evidence that Homo sapiens and our nearest cousins, the Neanderthals, intermingled in ancient times, sharing moments of daily life and various customs. The team’s research—published today in Nature Human Behavior—investigated stone tools, hunting strategies, and social aspects of the two human groups, and […]
Age of Famous Neanderthal Hybrid Child Pinpointed With Breakthrough Method
The famous skeleton of a child with human and Neanderthal features has now been precisely dated, thanks to a new radiocarbon dating technique that provides a more accurate timeline of the child’s life. The Lapedo Child—so-named for the valley in Portugal in which it was found—was discovered in 1998, when students chanced upon the rock […]