Paleolithic Papers #35

Genus Homo:

H. sapiens:

The late Pleistocene dating for Cooper's Ferry is disputed and here is the response.

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals made string, cord or twine.

H. antecessor:

H. antecessor is either the last common ancestor for Denisovans, Neandertals and modern humans or really, really close to it.

H. heidelbergensis:

The Broken Hill skull has been dated from ~299 thousand years gao.

H. naledi:

The DH7 juvenile skeleton gives some insight as to how H. naledi matured.

H. erectus:

H. erectus lived alongside paranthropus and australopethicus in South Africa.

Carnivores were responsible for the accumulation of H. erectus fossils at Dmanisi.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. afarensis:

Lucy's brain grew like a modern human's, but was organized like an ape's.

META:  

What did ancient humans look like?

How thick was the enamel on plio-pleistocene hominins?

How did the talus evolve in early hominins?

Were there multiple descents from the trees?

The role of cladistics in paleoanthropology.

Paleolithic Papers #33

Genus Homo:

Were the other hominins the first victims of the Sixth Mass Extinction?

45,000 year old projectiles have been found in Europe.

45,000 year old microlith tools have been found in Sri Lanka.

How long range endurance evolutionary pressure shaped the modern human heart.

Teeth from modern humans and possibly Neandertals have been found in the Manot Cave in Israel.

Foot bones from the Manot Cave appear to be both Neandertal and modern human.

What was the environment of the Manot Cave in?

Analysis of premolar teeth roots suggest a very complex demographic situation in China during the Pleistocene.

Modern Melanesians have introgressed genes associated from Denisovans and Neandertals.

There are genetic traces of paleolithic populations in North Africa.

There are potential adaptations to bipedalism in H. sapiens in the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae.

John Hawks questions whether or not the 3 root teeth found in east asians is really an introgression from Denisovans.

H sapiens:

What would a truly modern human look like?

The coastal paleoecology of modern humans in Easter Africa from the Pleistocene to Holocene.

Humans have been harvesting clams along the coast of British Columbia since at least the Terminal Pleistocene.

Was modern humanity's original home the wetlands of Botswana?

Modern humans may have followed the monsoons out of Africa.

These Yana Culture (modern humans) lived above the arctic circle 30,000 years ago.

H. neanderthalensis:

A spat over Upper Paleothic tech has begun.

Some dispute Neandertals were the source of cave art in Spain.

However, an eagle talon necklace was found in for the first time in Spain and has been ascribed to the Neandertals.

The Neandertal teeth of Marillac get examined.

H. erectus:

Hamadryas baboons are used as a proxy to understand H erectus behavioral evolution.

H. erectus could have been a persistence hunter based on estimated water loss.

Genus Australopithecus:

How Australopithecus changed how we thought humanity evolved.

Cerebral blood flow rates in Australopithecines was lower than in modern great apes for similar brain sizes.

Studying the origination and extinction of hominin species using A. anamesis, A afarensis, and Aridopithecus ramidus.

Genus Orrorin:

The environment of the site where Orrorin died was swampy.

Genus Danuvius:

A new bipedal brachiator ape from the Miocene recently found from Germany may usurp the Dryopithecus from the ancestral position for hominins.

META:

The hominiod to hominid difference in third molar enamel.

How human brains develop differently than great ape.

How scientists know human ancestors ate bugs.

Differences between human and other primate saliva might be because of diet.

The brain was considerably reorganized during hominin evolution.

When did hominins become behaviorally and psychologically modern?

Studying stone flakes can tell a lot about hunter gatherer behavior.

Paleolithic Papers #32

Genus Homo:

H. sapiens (modern humans):

Stone tools have been recovered from Cooper's Ferry, Idaho (USA) dating from 16,000 years ago.

Was the basal most H. sapiens surprisingly modern 500,000 years ago?

Human hearts evolved for endurance.

Foot prints have been found on Calvert Island, British Columbia dating from over 10,000 years ago.

H. neanderthalensis (Neandertals):

There was a shift at a single site of how stone tools were made during Late Acheulian the at Caune de l’Arago.

Did modern humans and Neandertals keep interbreeding over a long period?

Did the Neandertal Eustachian tube contribute to their extinction?

Neandertals were more innovative with their tools than normally credited.

The Neandertals footprints give insight into their social lives.

How Neandertals used birds, including their feathers, in the Qesem Cave, Israel.

Denisovans:

Denisovans seem to have had fingers more like modern humans than Neandertals.

Using genetics and epigenetics, researchers have reconstructed the shape of the face of at least one Denisovan.  The facial features are distinct from Neandertals and modern humans.

The introgression of Denisovan genetics into modern humans gave us an immunity boost.

Sima de los Huesos Hominin

At least one of the Simea de los Huesos proto Neandertals seems to have been murdered.

One of the hominins at Sima de los Huesos had a pathological growth for its ears.  It might not have made the individual deaf after all.

The cochlea evolution of the Simea de los Huesos Hominins gets examined.

H. naledi:

H. naledi's baby teeth were unique.

Genus Paranthropus:

P. robustus:

The femural neck of P. robustus gets examined.

Genus Australopithecus:

What were the Australopithecines?

Australopithecines seem to have breast fed longer than their contemporaries.

A. anamensis:

A nearly complete skull of A. anamensis gives a face to the species and shows evolution is messy showing even in hominins species often overlap in time.

META:

The trabecular boot gets examined in 4 different hominins.

Humans are unique in how they digest fatty foods.

Did a single gene mutation 3.3 million years ago make hominins prone to heart attacks?

Paleolithic Papers #31

Genus Homo:

Apparently, there has been selection against the archaic components of the genome when interbreeding hast taken place between modern humans and other hominin species.   

Could cooking have shaped our evolution for the last 2 million years?

More articles about the two previously undetected hominin relatives people seem to have interbred with.

Rock art requires a relatively high density demographic.

Modern Humanity (H. sapiens):

Tetrapod Zoology goes into five "mysterious" cave paintings.

Two Patagonian volcanic caves have evidence of people for the last 19,000 years.

Late Pleistocene fossils of modern humans have been found across the Wallace Line.

Mesolithic fire pits from the Netherlands get studied.

Modern humans occupied the Ethiopian highlands sometime between 31 kya to 47 kya.

An infant burial was found from Late Pleistocene Morocco. 

Human presence evidence from the Upper Paleolithic of Joran.

Ancient tools suggest modern humans spread across Eurasia earlier than previously thought.

Neandertals (H. neanderthalensis):

Studying Neandertal brains may give insights to modern human brain evolution.

The virtual reconstruction of the Apidima-2 skull.

The paleogenetic analysis of the Gibraltar Neandertals shows two different populations separated by time.

Half of Neandertals suffered from surfers ear, strongly implying they spent a lot of time in the water gathering food.

A Neandertal tooth was found in the Zagros Mountains.

Denisovans:

Could the 3 rooted second molar in the first Denisovan mandible be morphological evidence of introgression into modern populations?

Did Denisovans intentionally carve and paint this rock?

Denisovans are starting to come into the paleoanthropological light.

Hobbits (H. floresiensis):

Meet the hobbits of Indonesia.

H. erectus:

The Koobi Fora site in Kenya gets more support for being evidence of early use of fire.

H. naledi:

Meet Homo naledi.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. africanus mothers appear to have nursed their children for at least a year.

Authors of a new paper are arguing StW 573's skull shows it to be a different species than A. africanus.

META:

Hominin fossils seem to indicate early human species had teeth development similar to modern humans.

A single gene mutation 2 million years ago might explain why humans are prone to heart attacks.

There were significant environmental changes in the Middle Pleistocene in Europe.

Paleolithic Papers #30

Genus Homo:

Using archaeomegnetism to investigate Late Paleolithic cave occupation in Israel.

Residents of the Qesem Cave in Israel from 400,000 years ago recycled stone tools.

The characteristics of the Manot Cave in Israel gets examined.

H. sapiens:

Ancient alcohol was found in Israel from before the end of the Pleistocene.

How diverse were the cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in the Zagros Mountains of Iran?

There appears to have been an unknown population in modern day Oman during the Pleistocene.

What was the environment like in southern Levant during the last glacial cycle?

Modern humans may have dispersed through Asia in the Late Pleistocene through multiple routes.

A new population of ancient siberians from 31kya has been found.

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals seem to have split from modern humans further back in time than the genes suggest.

The ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans interbred with yet another ancient hominin population before they mixed it up with modern humans.

A jaw from a Neandertal from Regourdou, France shows the individual ate what appears to be typical foods for human hunter gatherers in a temperate forest based on the microwear analysis.

An odd preprint paper questions whether or not the introgression of Neandertals into modern humans was as much as previously thought.

H. erectus:

A new site at Madigou in China dates from 1.2 million years ago and contains stone tools.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. anamensis:

The verbatral morphology of A. anamensis appears to be more derived than A. afarensis.

A. afarensis:

The comparison of diets of pigs from Africa and australopithecines is examined and conclusions hominin diet diversification had not happened by the end of A. afarensis.

META:

The first metacarpal gets compared between different hominins and Great Apes.

Did our ancestor's ability to ingest alcohol lead to the evolution of people?  So wonders the Drunken Monkey Hypothesis.

A gene has been found that helps humans deal with high sugar diets.

Modern humans might be unique in our hearing capabilities.

Western Galilee's environment from the Late Middle and Upper Pleistocene gets examined.

Paleolithic Papers #29

Genus Homo:

Rock art from Croatia from circa 34,000 years ago is figurative in nature.

Stone tools were recycled to new uses at a cave in Israel during the late Lower Paleolithic.

Hunter gatherers don't live in 'small' societies.

H. sapiens (Modern Humans):

Brain sizes have shrunk 10% in the last 40,000 years.

There is evidence of starchy food cooked in South Africa during the Mesolithic.

Is this the earliest known footprint from a human in the Americas?

H. neanderthalensis (Neandertals):

The Sima de los Huesas hominins get their age bracketed.

The first Neandertal fossil from Serbia has been found.

Could have aridification helped wipe out the neandertals?

Denisovans:

The Denisovans were two populations, at least, and may have actually been two different species.

A Denisovan jaw bone found in Tibet shows Denisovans colonized the 'roof of the world' long before modern humans did.  The jaw bone also starts to show what the Denisovans looked like.

H. antecessor:

H. antecessor was, at least once, a cannibal.

H. heidelbergensis:

Evidence from reexamining bovid remains from South Africa suggest active hunting was import for H. heidelbergensis.

H. luzonensis:

H. luzonensis, a new hominin from Luzon island of the Philippines, has been discovered. This hominin was another miniature standing at about an estimated 1.2m (5 ft). It may have suffered from island dwarfing like H. floresiensis, the so-called Hobbit.  John Hawks comments.

Hualongdong Hominin:

A hominin from China has a mosaic of primitive and modern features.  Some are claiming this is proof of the multiregional hypothesis.

H. erectus:

Evidence of what mammals H. erectus ate in Italy prior to 1.3 million years ago.

The dispersal routes out of Africa for hominins are explored in Sudan looking for stone tools.  John Hawks comments.

H. naledi:

Cranial remains from the Lesedi Chamber of the Rising Star Cave show some variation from the other fossils, but by and large appear to be more of H. naledi.

H. habilis:

The KNM-ER 64060 fossil mandible appears to be from H. habilis rather than H. erectus.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. sediba:

A sediba does not appear to be ancestral to modern humans.

META:

Man the Runner hypothesis is back again.

A troop of chimps deprived a leopard of its kill: how does that help model early hominins?

The history of human evolution can be seen in your face.

How important was the east african coastal forest for human evolution?

Basal ancestors of Humanity were upright apes.

Plovers Lake paleogenetics data might have been contaminated by modern people.

Paleolithic Papers #27

Genus Homo:

Scientists are still stumped by the evolution of human breasts.

Hominins in Levant hunted different prey than did the resident hyenas.

H. sapiens:

Pleistocene hunters in Sri Lanka had a taste for monkey meat that lasted a long, long time.

East African hunter gatherers appear to have had a common ancestry.

There are more missing ancestors in our genome other than Neandertals and Denisovans.

Did modern humans self domesticate?

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals primary food source was, in fact, meat, at least, at Les Cottés and Grotte du Renne, in France.

What was the impact of the interglacial climate changes on Neandertal diets at Baume Moula-Guercy, Ardèche, France?

The replacement of Neandertals by modern humans was a little more complicated than what used to be thought: there was some, erm, intermingling.

Footprints of Neandertals from Gibraltar have been found.

Some are going hmmm over the stone artifacts at Châtelperronian.

Did inbreeding help do in the Neandertals?

Neandertals walked just like modern people did.

Sima de los Huesos Hominins:

The Middle Pleistocene hominins from Sima de los Huesos had very Neandertal-ish brains.

Denisovans:

Who were they? John Hawks comments.

H. erectus:

Britain may return the iconic Kabwe skull to Zambia.

Genus Paranthropus:

P. robustus:

What was the genetic origin of the pitted enamel hypoplasia in P. robustus?

Genus Aridopithecus:

A. ramidus postcranial remains from Ethiopia get a description.

A. ramidus had adaptations for waling bipedal.

META:

Is the African Eve hypothesis wrong?

Why did menopause evolve?

One paleoanthropologist's hopes for a human evolution museum in Israel.

Human and nonhuman primate brains are compared for clues to human brain evolution.

What were the origins of human language?

The tale of the multiregional hypothesis and the out of africa hypothesis are told.

Can we determine which hominin teeth came from when found?

The current 'gap' in the middle Pleistocene is very important to human evolution.

Root growth for teeth is compared between humans and apes.

Paleolithic Papers #26

Genus Homo:

How our ancestors survived and adapted 250k years ago.

In the last million years, the mutation rate in the human line has greatly decreased.

Estimating Late middle Pleistocene population sizes.

Hominins may be ecologically unique.

The introgression and hybridization between modern H. sapiens and archaic hominins gets examined.

Ancient DNA from Africa has been starting to be uncovered.

H.  sapiens:

Dogs appear to have been helping hunt as far back as 11,5000 years ago.

Do few tools found mean few people were present?

The seasonal scheduling of shellfish collection from the Mesolithic and more recent are examined.

The oldest dog burial known to date has been found in the Americas dating from the end of the Pleistocene.

Why modern humans evolved different colored skin.

A femur with some unique traits, but probably from anatomically modern humans from the Niah Caves in Malaysia gets examined.

The raw materials used in stone tools in Israel by early H. sapiens is explored.

H. neanderthalensis:

The foot bones of individuals from Montignac-sur-Vézère, Dordogne, France are examined.

The introgression of Neandertals and other archaic hominids had an impact on gene expression in Eurasian populations.

Neandertal spears could be thrown successfully to kill.

Modern humans replaced Neandertals at Bajondillo Cave in Spain 44kya, surprisingly early.

Neandertals introgressing into modern human populations reintroduced alleles that were lost when the ancestors of modern eurasians left africa.

The book, The Smart Neanderthal, gets reviewed.

Neandertals appear to have, in at least a few instances, mass prey killers and then only taken the best parts, leaving the rest.  John Hawks replies.  He also discusses the mass kill site at Gran Dolina, Spain.

Denisovans:

The Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains was occupied by Denisovans from 192,000 years to almost 52,000 years ago with a period where Neandertals were present.  Stone tools from a hominin date from 300,000 years ago, but it is not clear who made them.  The site was occupied at least until 20,000 years ago.

New unknown hominins:

There appears there is another hominin that modern people recently interbred with.

An archaic hominin from between 150k to 250k years ago had modern tooth eruption.

H. antecessor:

While similar to modern humans in many ways, H. antecessor's were very different.

H. erectus:

It appears Chinese H. erectus populations might have been diverging from Indonesian populations.

Genus Australopithecus:

The era of Australopithecus in South Africa gets a multidisciplinary examination.

Did australopithecines associate with antelope to avoid predators?

A. sediba:

A. sediba is unique species.

A. africanus:

Recently, authors suggested a specimen was of a new species of Australopithecus and resurrected an old name for A. africanus ("A. prometheus").  John Hawks discusses why this won't work.

The long limb bones of StW 573 are studied and discussed..

The bony labyrinth of StW 573 is detailed and what its implications are.

The forearm bones were asymmetrical on StW 573: could that have been a sign of antemortem trauma?

The dental wear of StW 573 was more like A. anamensis than other australopithecines.  Was this evidence it was from a different species than A. africanus?

StW 573's functional anatomy, biomechanical capabilities and potential niche are discussed in light of the new information gathered.

The site where StW 573 was found and its past investigations are detailed.

A. anamensis:

The environment A. anamensis lived in gets examined.

META:

The central place of Africa in human evolution.

Could early hominins crossed water?

How did humans lose their hair and get sweaty?

The importance of human foot muscles to bipedalism.

A new book on the impact of tectonics on human evolution gets reviewed.

Paleolithic Papers #24

Genus Homo:

H. sapiens:

A cave in Libya has show evidence of grinding stones used on seeds from the Late Pleistocene, 31 kya.

We know ancient humans believed in an afterlife.

A new bone knife is the oldest specialized artifact from the Aterian culture, 90,000 years ago.

A technological/cultural transition that took place in South Africa was definitely not linked to climate change.

The Friedkin site in Texas has yielded more pre Clovis projectile points from approximately 15.5kya.

Are the reports of H. sapiens outside of Africa ~200kya due to flawed interpretation of the dating data?

Genetic studies of Africa are giving light to ancient human population evolution there during the Pleistocene.

H. neanderthalensis:

A large part of the DNA left to modern humans from interbreeding with Neandertals is related to fighting off viruses.

Neandertals practiced their own form of health care and it was crucial to their survival.

Modeling the disappearance of Neandertals through population dynamics.

A Neandertal child in Poland from 42 kya was eaten by a large bird.

H. antecessor:

Homo antecessor had already evolved Neandertal-type teeth 450,000 years ago.

H. erectus:

The variation in the Acheulean stone tools is examined.

How many different grips were used on the lower Paleolithic hand axes?

META:

Did the ancient climate affect human evolution?

The difference between chimpanzee and human upright walking related to trunk sizes.

A geometric morphometric examination of hominoid third metacarpal shape and its implications for inferring the precursor to terrestrial bipedalism.

Paleolithic Papers #23

Genus Homo:

The modern human hand was almost certainly around by 500,000 years ago, predating modern humans by 300,000 years.

The deactivation of the Cmah gene two to three million years ago appears to have given hominins a leg up by increasing endurance and improving running speeds.

H. sapiens:

When DID modern humans reach southeast asia and sahul?

The revised timeline of data from the Liang Bua cave may suggest modern humans made it to Flores by 46 kya.

The Levant had a humid period between 44kya and 55 kya.  That may be what helped modern humans disperse out of Africa.

An abstract piece of art appears to have been found in a cave in South Africa dating from 73,000 years ago.

Using ZooMS to understand the bone tools of the twilight of the Pleistocene in North Africa.

Humans actually share better than other primates.

Beer before agriculture.  Maybe.  However, beer dates from the twilight of the Pleistocene in Israel.  If not older.

Neandertals:

The early dates for the Neandertal Art might be wrong.  Some are disputing them.

Could cooking and fire be how modern humans outcompeted Neandertals?

How much did the climate cycles impact the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans in Europe?

Neandertal brains were bigger than modern humans, but not necessarily better.

Denisovans:

Meet Denny.  She is a 13 year old girl who had a Neandertal mother and a Denisovan father.

The cave where Denny came from has given up 4 more bones (not hers).  Dr. John Hawks comments.

Aroeria Hominin:

The bony labyrinth of this hominin appears to be more primitive than in Neandertals.  This could be a new hominin or an example of Homo heidelbergensis.

META:

Evolution of the hominin foot and how it relates to bipedalism.

How DID humans evolve their 'smarts?'

Two to three million years ago, human ancestors had genetic change that improved their running capability.

Paleolithic Papers #21

Genus Homo:

Why are human brains so large?  What genes make our brains grow so much larger than most other animals in relative terms?  Does the size come at a cost?

H. sapiens:

Who were the Nataruk people?

The Zhoukoudian Cave's human habitation is 35 thousand years old.

Mesolithic Mediterranean people's diet has been discovered via analysis of their teeth.

More evidence suggests modern humans colonized the Americas via the coastal route.

Paleogenetic evidence also suggests two different lineages did the colonization.

Mesolithic intestinal parasites have been found in Sweden.

Diets of the Niah Cave residents might be detectable from their mandibles.

The Clovis tech and skeletal remains from the Anzick site are, in fact, from the same time frame at the Holocene/Pleistocene boundary.

The interaction between modern humans and the archaic populations it replaced in Africa as it evolved needs to be examined.

Late Pleistocene tools in Sri Lanka show what plants the locals were eating at the time.

H. neanderthalensis:

How DID Neandertals hunt?  By not throwing, it appears, but by close-quarters thrusts and stabs.

New insights into the Neandertal thorax.

Denisovans:

Stone tools from the Denisovan cave were used to butcher animals.

H. erectus:

How H. erectus may have interacted with a lake margin ecology.

H. naledi:

Based on studying the teeth of H. naledi, it definitely appears to be a member of the genus Homo.

H. habilis:

The biomechanics of the OH 8 foot get examined.

Genus Australopithecus:

The cranial thickness of the StW 578 hominin (A. africanus, iirc) gets examined and similarities to modern humans are found, while differences from Paranthropus are uncovered as well.

The DIK-1-1f A. afarensis child has finally been described.  Among the interesting features is the child had ankles and feet that would help it climb trees, unlike the adults of the same species.  The big toe, as a child, was far, far more mobile than as an adult.  This would allow for grasping while climbing.  However, the child would lose this as it grew up.  Even as a child though, the Dikka hominin was definitely bipedal.

META:

The environment of 2 million years ago where hominins lived was wetter than previously thought.

Muscles thought to be uniquely human have been found in great apes.

How hominins leading to humans carved out their unique niche and how it differed from apes.

Studying breakage patterns on bones could have been produced by hominins.

Caution with studying collagen from prehistoric hominin fossils is warranted.

Large size might have evolved already by the time of the last common ancestor of humans and chimps.

Paleolithic Papers #20

Genus Homo:

Were movable eye brows a significant force in human evolution?

Hominins were not present where megafauna were common, but may have still contributed to the mass extinction.

Where did the Neandertal introgression hypothesis originate?

Just what butchered a rhino in the Philippines 709,000 years ago?

A cave in Kenya gives insight into technological innovation over millennia during the Pleistocene.

The onset of the Achuelean in East Africa is examined.

H. sapiens:

A modern human finger bone has been found in Saudi Arabia dating from over 85,000 years ago.

John Hawks looks back at the idea the Clovis Culture was the first one in the Americas.

The origin of fluted point technology in the ice free corridor in North America.

Long distance pigment trade and use in Mesolithic Africa.

The environmental conditions at the onset of the Mesolithic in Africa.

Variation in the temporal labyrinth as evidence of out of Africa.

Stone artifacts where recovered from Sulawesi, Indonesia dating from 65,000 years ago, suggesting modern humans arrived much earlier than previously thought.

Genomic research linked North African, subsaharan and Middle Eastern populations during the Late Pleistocene.

A recent paper argues a 5 meter long wooden sculpture from Siberia is from the twilight of the Pleistocene and the oldest known monumental art.

Symbolic emblems from the Middle East hint that the Levantine Aurignacian had a distinct, regional culture.

Modern Humans started making certain types of stone tools over ten thousand years earlier than previously thought.

The ability to focus on details led to a revolution in cave paintings.

Evidence of waves of immigrants into the Southeast Asia come from genetics.

How humans survived the Toba event.

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals actually had a rather unique nasal system and breathed primarily through their nose, even when breathing heavily.  Could that have been a cold weather adaptation?  After all, our noses help warm and moisten the air as it comes in.

Scientists are hoping to grow brain organoids using Neandertal DNA and observe differences between Neandertals and modern humans.

Neandertals might have have had Mediterranean maritime odysseys since their tools were found on the island of Crete.

How much insight do artifacts from Crimea give into Neandertal symbolism?

Differences between Neandertal and modern human mandibular ramus are considered.

The 'endocostal ossifications' of the K 2 Neandertal get reconsidered.

H. floresiensis:

The experiences of one of the discoverers of the Hobbit and John Hawks' amplification of that.

H. erectus:

KNM-WT 1500's weight has had important implications for understanding H. erectus growth.

KNM-ER 42700:

KNM-ER 42700 is NOT Homo erectus, but rather a different, unknown hominin species.

H. naledi:

Enamel growth on H. naledi's teeth gets considered.

The complexity of H. naledi's brain is examined.

Genus Australopithecus:

Modern human gait predates the genus Homo.

Human hip joint loading was present in A. africanus and P. robustus.

META:

Our understanding of hominin evolution is shaped by sampling bias.

Developed Olduwan A should be abandoned as a term since there is no difference between it and Olduwan.

A new hominin has been found circa 2 million years ago from Ethiopia. 

What we inherited from our insectivorous ancestors.

Paleolithic Papers #19

Genus Homo:

A British Columbian family found a hominin trackway dating from 90,000 years ago in South Africa.  This was certainly from the genus Homo and probably even H. sapiens.

Bone retouchers from circa 115,000 years ago were found in China.  John Hawks comments on them.

Paleolithic bone tools from northern China are examined.

A lower density of carnivores in Europe might have allowed hominins to thrive.

Almost immediately after the glaciers retreated in Germany, hominins moved in.

H. sapiens:

A Pleistocene Moroccan had its genetic ancestry traced to the Near East and Subsaharan Africa.

The Toba super eruption did not cause a volcanic winter in eastern Africa.

Modern humans seem to have been just fine in South Africa, too.

John Hawks takes a look at the Toba bottleneck.

Cheddar Man, the prehistoric individual found in Britain with modern descendants in the area had dark skin.  By modern standards, he was black.

Can micro amounts of flint in archaeological sites help indicate if there was flint knapping taking place?

Evidence of modern humans has been found that pushes back our species origin by tens of thousands of years.

Major climate and technological change abounded at the dawn of modern humans.

Footprints of human beings have been found off the coast of Canada dating to the Late Pleistocene.

H. neanderthalensis:

The oldest fire forged multi purpose tool dates from 170,000 years ago in Europe.

Brown Bears, Cave Bears and Neandertals were competitors in Pleistocene Europe.  It seems in some cases, Neandertals actually hunted the bears.

The complexity of Neandertal technology gets discussed.

The classic Neandertal La Ferrassie 1 gets a redescription and that includes new pathologies found.

Neandertals seem to have a rather different thorax than modern humans.

Could Neandertal's lack of drawing be related to how they hunted?  Probably mistaken.  See the next line.

The first cave art is probably Neandertal and predates known modern humans arriving in Europe by 20,000 years.  This suggests Neandertals thought like modern people do. (original paper)

The El Sidrón juvenile Neandertal reconstruction has led to some controversy.

Sima de los Huesos Hominin:

The SdlH hominin had legs more like Neandertals than early modern humans based on their cross section.  This would lend support to the idea the SdlH hominins are basal Neandertals or ancestral to Denisovans and Neandertals.

Denisovans:

It appears that Denisovans interbred with modern humans twice.

H. heidelbergensis:

The bite strength of H. heidelbergensis and H. sapiens is compared.

H. naledi:

New excavations are underway at the site where H. naledi was discovered.

The teeth of H. naledi are considered with their potential diet in mind.

META:

The paper "The revised stratigraphy of the hominin-bearing site of Kromdraai (Gauteng, South Africa) and associated perspectives " has been retracted by the editors of the journal.

The evolution of eccrine sweat glands in human lineage gets examined.

Hominid brain size grew over time.  John Hawks takes issue with the paper.  (and he also calls homo floresiensis by its name)

Were grass leaves a source of food for hominins?

Did hominins use stone tools to make nightly defensive shelters from Acacia trees?

Hominins risked ischemia when going bipedal.

Hip extensor mechanics and the evolution of walking upright.

Did Pleistocene hominins really bury their dead?

Paleolithic Papers #18

Genus Homo:

Stone tools found in Attirampakkam, India push back the first occurrence of Levallois style stone tools.  200,000 years earlier than the previous occurrence.

John Hawks speculates about the potential for mitochondrial DNA introgression.

How to screw up stone tools.

H. sapiens:

The Indonesian island of Kisar is unusually rich in cave paintings.

It now appears that modern humans dispersed out of Africa multiple times prior to 60,000 years ago.

Humanity might be at its peak potential physically.

There is a bunfight over how to interpret South African mesolithic sites.

How deep into the Pleistocene did modern humans live in Indonesia?

The Out of Africa model is getting challenged again.

The Americas were peopled in one wave, by and large, for so implied by the genome of a 11,500 child found in Alaska from a new population from Holocene/Pleistocene Boundary Alaska.

Scandinavia was populated through two migrations at the end of the ice age.

A new jaw found in Israel of what appears to be a modern human pushes back the oldest date modern human remains have been found outside of Africa.  John Hawks has his own take.

At least four distinct populations of humans were present in Eurasia during the Late Pleistocene.

Archaeologists have reconstructed post ice age spear points from Holocene Boundary Alaska.

A Mesolithic 'crayon' may have been recovered from England.

The Bonn-Oberkassel dog found buried with two modern humans was very ill from distemper and would have required extensive care that would have made it useless as a helper or hunter for some time before its death.

H. neanderthalensis:

Were the Neandertals stymied by the glacial lakes of Siberia?

Neandertals appear to have collected hunting trophies.

Did the Neandertal home range get fragmented into smaller pockets due to climate change?

H. erectus:

Inner tooth morphology from the H. erectus finds of Zhoukoudian.

H. habilis:

Where OH24 and OH56 were found.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. africanus:

Little Foot has been prepared and shared with the world.

Genus Sahelanthropus:

John Hawks points out something weird is afoot with the Sahelanthropus femur.

META:

Human evolution has been uneven, punctuated.

A hypothesis has been proposed for the evolution of the digital sesamoids in the hominin line.

Taking a look at the materials of stone tools and their performance.

Lessons learned from the Piltdown doubters.

How hominins procured the raw materials for stone tools in the Lower Pleistocene.

Estimating body masses in hominins.

When did pair bonding become a thing in hominins?