
Ancient hominins may have needed midwives to help deliver babies
7 May 2021
Based on the shapes of their pelvises, extinct hominins like Australopithecus had a hard time giving birth, suggesting mothers in labour needed assistance from their peers

7 May 2021
Based on the shapes of their pelvises, extinct hominins like Australopithecus had a hard time giving birth, suggesting mothers in labour needed assistance from their peers

24 February 2021
Proto-cities built from 6200 years ago in eastern Europe upend our ideas about when civilisation began and why people made the move from rural to urban living

27 January 2021
For millennia, our species advanced in lockstep with the Denisovans and it is hard to work out from archaeological finds why they disappeared from the planet while we now dominate it

27 January 2021
The existence of the Denisovans was discovered just a decade ago through DNA alone. Now we're starting to uncover fossils and artefacts revealing what these early humans were like

16 December 2020
Watching TV and staring at flickering flames produce similar physiological effects, offering intriguing clues to the enduring power of entertainment – and the origins of sociability

11 November 2020
Hugs, handshakes and air kisses serve the same crucial purposes as animal greetings like sniffing, eye poking and buttock grabbing

23 September 2020
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is one of the greatest accomplishments of human intellect and it is continuing to bring further insights under its wing

9 September 2020
We can't extract DNA from some of the most perplexing ancient human fossils. But ancient proteins sometimes survive better, and they are finally starting to give up their secrets

5 August 2020
New research reveals that miscarriage serves a critical role in human evolution – and in some instances, may even be associated with optimal fertility

28 April 2020
Being intelligent has allowed our species to conquer the world. Mark Maslin explains why evolution favoured an unusually brainy ape.