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Early break-up of eastern African forests shaped our ape ancestors

13 April 2023

Forests in eastern Africa started turning into grassland 10 million years earlier than previously thought, which may have driven the evolution of upright apes

Bone fragment reveals humans wore leather clothes 39,000 years ago

12 April 2023

A study of an ancient bone from Spain with a strange pattern of notches hints that it was used by early Homo sapiens in Europe as a punch board for making holes in leather

Early hominin Paranthropus may have used sophisticated stone tools

9 February 2023

Stone tools discovered in Kenya are the oldest Oldowan-type implements found, dating back at least 2.6 million years, and they may have been made by our relative Paranthropus

Light micrograph of a section through the spleen of a patient with Gaucher's disease. Small lymphocytes and large macrophage cells (Gaucher?s cells, pink, a type of white blood cell) are present. Gaucher's disease is an inherited metabolic disorder in which a fatty substance called glucocerebroside accumulates in the spleen (in macrophages), lungs, liver and bone marrow, and sometimes the brain. This is due to an absence of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GC). The disease appears in childhood, and some forms are fatal in the first few years. Other forms cause enlargement of the affected organs, weak and painful bones and anaemia. Some forms also cause severe nervous system damage. There is no cure, but enzyme replacement therapy using GC can relieve the symptoms. Haematoxylin-eosin saffron (HES) stain. Magnification: x400 at 24x36 mm size.

Genes for Gaucher disease may have protected Jewish people against TB

6 February 2023

Gaucher disease, a genetic condition that is more common in Ashkenazi Jewish people, may confer protection against tuberculosis, according to research in zebrafish

Straight-tusked elephant bones hint at routine hunting and butchering by Neanderthals

Neanderthals hunted enormous elephants that fed 100 people for a month

1 February 2023

The extinct straight-tusked elephant was even larger than modern African elephants, making it unclear if Neanderthal hunters could take one down, but a newly analysed trove of bones suggests it was possible

2FM22K7 The joy is evident on the face of this young orangutan. BORNEO: THIS BRITISH photographer has spent TWENTY years snapping Borneo?s cutest orangutans.

Living in trees may have given great apes vocal skills for consonants

20 December 2022

A comparison of consonant-like sounds in great apes suggests an arboreal lifestyle may have been a step towards complex speech in our ancestors

A series of hominoid crania (counterclockwise from the L): juvenile Australopithecus, adult Australopithecus, adult chimpanzee, juvenile chimpanzee, adult Homo erectus (center). Specimens photographed at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Our ancestors’ prenatal growth sped up after we split from chimps

3 October 2022

Early humans evolved a faster fetal growth rate than other apes about a million years ago, suggesting it could have played a role in the evolution of our species