ScienceDaily: Anthropology News
Anthropology News. Read about early human culture, civilizations and latest discoveries at ancient sites in our anthropology news.
This blog is one of the best anthropology blogs out there. Add this blog to My Feeds.
Prehistoric response to global warming informs human planning today
Mar 13, 2010 2:00pm
Since 2004, University at Buffalo anthropologist Ezra Zubrow has worked intensively with teams of scientists in the Arctic regions of St. James Bay, Quebec, northern Finland and Kamchatka to understand how humans living 4,000 to 6,000 years ago reacted to climate changes....
Fossil bird eggshell provides source of ancient DNA
Mar 12, 2010 5:00pm
Scientists have successfully isolated ancient DNA from fossil eggshell remains of extinct birds for the first time....
Scientists discover 600 million-year-old origins of vision
Mar 12, 2010 5:00am
By studying the hydra, a member of an ancient group of sea creatures that is still flourishing, scientists have made a discovery in understanding the origins of human vision....
Students' perceptions of Earth's age influence acceptance of human evolution
Mar 11, 2010 11:00am
High school and college students who understand the geological age of the Earth (4.5 billion years) are much more likely to understand and accept human evolution, according to a new study. A 2009 Gallup poll reported that 16 percent of biology teachers believe God created humans in their present form...
Pottery leads to discovery of peace-seeking women in American Southwest
Mar 10, 2010 11:00am
A researcher believes pottery found throughout the North American Southwest comes from a religion of peace-seeking women in the violent, 13th-century American Southwest. These women sought to find a way to integrate newly immigrating refugees and prevent the spread of warfare that decimated communities to the north....
Modern man found to be generally monogamous, moderately polygamous
Mar 3, 2010 5:00pm
New research has found that modern man, or Homo sapiens, would have been monogamous while exhibiting tendencies toward polygamy over the course of evolutionary history. These findings are consistent with studies in evolutionary psychology and anthropology that depict contemporary human populations....
'History Detectives' investigate the case of the mylar mystery
Mar 3, 2010 5:00pm
There is a mystery afoot at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center -- the case of the mylar mystery to be exact. The PBS show "The History Detectives" recently investigated questions surrounding one clue -- a small, unassuming, silver sample of mylar with pink residue on one side. The mystery to...
'Missing link' fossil was not human ancestor as claimed, anthropologists say
Mar 3, 2010 8:00am
A fossil that was celebrated last year as a possible "missing link" between humans and early primates is actually a forebear of modern-day lemurs and lorises, according new research....
Strategic research program needed to determine whether, how past climate influenced human evolution
Mar 2, 2010 9:00pm
Understanding how past climate may have influenced human evolution could be dramatically enhanced by an international cross-disciplinary research program....
DNA sequence of extinct ancient cattle uncovered
Mar 1, 2010 2:00am
Researchers, based in Ireland and Britain, have found the complete mitochondrial DNA genome sequence of ancient wild cattle using a sample from a 6,700 year-old bone....
Archaeologists amend written history of China's first emperor
Feb 28, 2010 9:00pm
Researchers have integrated textual information with archaeological research in order to further understand the impact of the reign of China's first emperor....
Liberals and atheists smarter? Intelligent people have values novel in human evolutionary history, study finds
Feb 24, 2010 2:00pm
Higher intelligence is associated with liberal political ideology, atheism, and men's (but not women's) preference for sexual exclusivity. More intelligent people are statistically more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to human evolution. Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women),...
DNA evidence tells 'global story' of human history
Feb 24, 2010 11:00am
In recent years, DNA evidence has added important new tools for scientists studying the human past. Now, a collection of reviews offers a timely update on how new genetic evidence, together with archaeological and linguistic evidence, has enriched our understanding of human history on earth....
Archaeologist discovers Jerusalem city wall from tenth century B.C.E.
Feb 22, 2010 11:00am
A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. -- possibly built by King Solomon -- has been revealed in recent archaeological excavations....
Study debunks millennia-old claims of systematic infant sacrifice in ancient Carthage
Feb 18, 2010 5:00pm
A new study may finally lay to rest the millennia-old conjecture that the ancient empire of Carthage regularly sacrificed its youngest citizens. An examination of the remains of Carthaginian children revealed that most infants perished prenatally or very shortly after birth and were unlikely to have lived long enough to...
Study examines family lineage of King Tut, his possible cause of death
Feb 17, 2010 11:00am
Using several scientific methods, including analyzing DNA from royal mummies, research findings suggest that malaria and bone abnormalities appear to have contributed to the death of Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun, with other results appearing to identify members of the royal family, including King Tut's father and mother, according to a...
Waking the dead: Scientists reconstruct nuclear genome of extinct human being
Feb 10, 2010 2:00pm
For the first time, scientists have reconstructed the nuclear genome of an extinct human being. The innovative technique can help reconstruct human phenotypic traits of extinct cultures. It also allows for finding those contemporary populations most closely related to extinct cultures revealing ancient human expansions and migrations. Finally, the discovery...
Did bacteria develop into more complex cells much earlier in evolution than thought?
Feb 8, 2010 8:00am
Biochemists have described the process by which bacteria developed into more complex cells and found this crucial step happened much earlier in the evolutionary timeline than previously thought....
Ancient human teeth show that stress early in development can shorten life span
Feb 4, 2010 11:00pm
Ancient human teeth are telling secrets that may relate to modern-day health: Some stressful events that occurred early in development are linked to shorter lifespans. "Prehistoric remains are providing strong, physical evidence that people who acquired tooth enamel defects while in the womb or early childhood tended to die earlier,...
Last ancestor humans shared with worms had sophisticated brain, microRNAs show
Feb 2, 2010 5:00pm
The last ancestor we shared with worms, which roamed the seas around 600 million years ago, may already have had a sophisticated brain. Fossils cannot give us this information, but scientists have obtained it by studying small molecules called microRNAs....
DNA testing on 2,000-year-old bones in Italy reveal East Asian ancestry
Feb 2, 2010 2:00pm
Researchers excavating an ancient Roman cemetery were surprised when DNA testing on a set of bones revealed East Asian ancestry....
Developmental delay may explain behavior of easygoing bonobo apes
Jan 29, 2010 8:00am
New research suggests that evolutionary changes in cognitive development underlie the extensive social and behavioral differences that exist between two closely related species of great apes. The study enhances our understanding of our two closest living relatives, chimpanzees and the lesser-known bonobos, and may provide key insight into human evolution....
Language structure is partly determined by social structure
Jan 28, 2010 8:00pm
Psychologists argue that human languages may adapt more like biological organisms than previously thought and that the more common and popular the language, the simpler its construction to facilitate its survival....
Saving endangered languages from being forgotten
Jan 28, 2010 2:00am
With only 3.000 speakers in Northwest Siberia the Ob-Ugrian language Mansi is on the verge of extinction. Predictions say it will be extinct in ten to twenty years at the latest. The same holds true for Khanti, a member of the same language family. It is for this reason that...
Last Neanderthals in Europe died out 37,000 years ago
Jan 27, 2010 11:00am
The last Neanderthals in Europe died out at least 37,000 years ago -- and both climate change and interaction with modern humans could be involved in their demise, according to new research....
Is the Hobbit's brain unfeasibly small?
Jan 27, 2010 5:00am
Homo floresiensis, a pygmy-sized small-brained hominin popularly known as 'the Hobbit' was discovered five years ago, but controversy continues over whether the small brain is actually due to a pathological condition. How can its tiny brain size be explained? Researchers have tackled this question in the context of a comprehensive...
Most modern European males descend from farmers who migrated from the Near East
Jan 21, 2010 5:00pm
A new study has found that most men in Europe descend from the first farmers who migrated from the Near East 10,000 years ago....
Animals populated Madagascar by rafting there
Jan 20, 2010 11:00pm
How did the lemurs, flying foxes and narrow-striped mongooses get to the large, isolated island of Madagascar sometime after 65 million years ago? A pair of scientists say their research confirms the longstanding idea that the animals hitched rides on natural rafts blown out to sea....
New theory on the origin of primates
Jan 20, 2010 2:00pm
New biogeographic evidence supports the origin of primates in the Jurassic and the evolution of the modern primate groups -- prosimians, tarsiers, and anthropoids -- by the early Cretaceous....
Chimp and human Y chromosomes evolving faster than expected
Jan 15, 2010 11:00am
The first comprehensive comparison of Y chromosomes from two species sheds new light on Y chromosome evolution. Contrary to a widely held scientific theory that the mammalian Y chromosome is slowly decaying or stagnating, new evidence suggests that in fact the Y is actually reinventing itself through continuous, wholesale renovation....
Raft or bridge: How did iguanas reach tiny Pacific islands?
Jan 14, 2010 8:00am
Scientists have long puzzled over how iguanas, a group of lizards mostly found in the Americas, came to inhabit the isolated Pacific islands of Fiji and Tonga. For years, the leading explanation has been that progenitors of the island species must have rafted there, riding across the Pacific on a...
Missing 500-Years of Loggias, Porticos Described
Jan 13, 2010 11:00pm
Using texts and images, a researcher has for the first time reconstructed the time when the use of porticos -- roof-covered structures supported by columns -- gave way to loggias, or recessed porticos....
Shipworm threatens archaeological treasures
Jan 13, 2010 2:00pm
The dreaded shipworm is moving into the Baltic Sea, threatening artifacts of the area's cultural heritage. Researchers suspect that the unfortunate spread is due to climate change, and are currently involved in a project to determine which archaeological remains are at risk....
Stable climate and plant domestication linked
Jan 13, 2010 2:00am
Sustainable farming and the introduction of new crops relies on a relatively stable climate, not dramatic conditions attributable to climate change. Basing their argument on evolutionary, ecological, genetic and agronomic considerations, researchers demonstrate why climate change is not the likely cause of plant domestication in the Near East....
Use of body ornamentation shows Neanderthal mind capable of advanced thought
Jan 12, 2010 2:00pm
The widespread view of Neanderthals as cognitively inferior to early modern humans is challenged by new research. Scientists examined pigment-stained and perforated marine shells, most certainly used as neck pendants, from two Neanderthal-associated sites in the Murcia province of south-east Spain. The analysis of lumps of red and yellow pigments...
Ongoing human evolution could explain recent rise in certain disorders
Jan 11, 2010 8:00am
Evolutionary pressures could explain the seeming rise of disorders such as autism and autoimmune diseases, researchers report. The scientists also suggest that evolutionary perspectives should be integrated into medical school curricula, to help future physicians consider health problems from an evolutionary perspective....
Most ancient Hebrew biblical inscription deciphered, scholar says
Jan 8, 2010 5:00pm
An inscription dating from the 10th century BCE (the period of King David's reign) has been deciphered, showing that it is a Hebrew inscription. The discovery makes this the earliest known Hebrew writing, according to one scholar....
30,000-year-old child's teeth shed new light on human evolution
Jan 8, 2010 2:00pm
The teeth of a 30,000-year-old child are shedding new light on the evolution of modern humans, thanks to new research....
New Evidence Of Culture In Wild Chimpanzees
Jan 4, 2010 8:00pm
A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study shows that neighboring chimpanzee populations in Uganda use different tools to solve a novel problem: extracting honey trapped within a fallen log....
Using modern sequencing techniques to study ancient humans
Jan 4, 2010 5:00am
DNA that is left in the remains of long-dead plants, animals or humans allows a direct look into the history of evolution....
First molars provide insight into evolution of great apes, humans
Dec 29, 2009 11:00am
Scientists have gained new insights into the timing of molar emergence and its relation to growth and reproduction in apes. "We can use the same techniques to calculate ages at first molar emergence from the fossils of early hominids that just happened to die while their first molars were erupting,"...
Among apes, teeth are made for the toughest times
Dec 22, 2009 2:00pm
The teeth of some apes are formed primarily to handle the most stressful times when food is scarce, according to new research. The findings imply that if humanity is serious about protecting its close evolutionary cousins, the food apes eat during these tough periods -- and where they find it...
Modern behavior of early humans found half-million years earlier than thought
Dec 22, 2009 5:00am
Evidence of sophisticated, human behavior has been discovered by researchers as early as 750,000 years ago -- some half a million years earlier than has previously been estimated by archaeologists....
Sixty headless skeletons -- 3,000 years old -- discovered in Pacific Ocean archipelago Vanuatu
Dec 21, 2009 11:00am
A find of 60 headless skeletons summer 2009 may reveal the identity of the people who first inhabited the Pacific Ocean archipelago Vanuatu 3000 years ago....
Tropical birds waited for land crossing between North and South America, study finds
Dec 20, 2009 8:00am
Despite their ability to fly, tropical birds waited until the formation of the land bridge between North and South America to move northward, according to a new study....
Previously unknown gene is unique to placental mammals
Dec 18, 2009 8:00am
Researchers have discovered a previously unknown gene ZBED6 that is unique to placental mammals. The gene originates from a so called jumping gene that integrated in the genome of a primitive mammal at least 150 million years ago and has since then evolved an essential function....
Stone age pantry: Archaeologist unearths earliest evidence of modern humans using wild grains and tubers for food
Dec 17, 2009 11:00pm
The consumption of wild cereals among prehistoric hunters and gatherers appears to be far more ancient than previously thought, according to an archaeologist who has found the oldest example of extensive reliance on cereal and root staples in the diet of early Homo sapiens more than 100,000 years ago....
Ancient origins of modern opossum revealed
Dec 17, 2009 5:00pm
Scientists have traced the evolution of the modern opossum back to the extinction of the dinosaurs and found evidence to support North America as the center of origin for all living marsupials....
Claim your "Top 100 Blogs" award now!
Top 100 Blogs Size: 125x125 px. Copy and paste the following code to your blog or website.