Ancient humans hunted animals by throwing a stick like a boomerang

19 July 2023

Analysis of a wooden stick thought to be around 300,000 years old suggests it was designed to be thrown rotationally, rather than as a spear

Some of the earliest modern humans in Europe used bows and arrows

22 February 2023

A site in France briefly occupied by modern humans is littered with stone points that were probably used as arrowheads, showing that bows and arrows were used in Europe much earlier than we thought

When did humans start making art and were Neanderthals artists too?

15 July 2022

On a visit to see ancient cave art in Spain, Michael Marshall explores why it's so hard to calculate the age of early human artworks and whether other hominins might also have created art.

Just 1.5 to 7 per cent of the modern human genome is uniquely ours

16 July 2021

Just 1.5 to 7 per cent of the modern human genome is uniquely ours – meaning it emerged after we split from other ancient human groups including the Neanderthals and Denisovans

Climate change may have driven early human species to extinction

15 October 2020

Sudden climatic changes may have been a significant driver of the extinction of early human species, including the Neanderthals, Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis

How did humans evolve from apes?

5 July 2019

Many parents dread the moment when a child asks where they came from. Charles Darwin found the subject awkward too: On the Origin of Species makes almost no mention of human evolution.

Denisovans

17 May 2019