Search | New Scientist

Carved giant sloth bones may have been worn as personal ornaments

Early humans made jewellery from giant sloth bones

11 July 2023

The bones were shaped by people using stone tools before they were fossilised, adding new evidence for humans’ arrival in the Americas before the end of the last glacial period

A woman with her daughter observes the pictures of people who lost their lives during the Guatemalan civil war, as forensic anthropologists from the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) exhume the bodies of one of four mass graves in La Verbena cemetery, in Guatemla City on March 6, 2010, as part of a search to find the 889 people who disappeared during the internal armed conflict (1960-1996). AFP PHOTO/Johan ORDONEZ (Photo credit should read JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Still Life With Bones review: Harrowing account of exposing genocide

15 March 2023

TV dramas use tidy, cleaned-up bones to crack crimes in minutes, but an unvarnished account by forensic anthropologist Alexa Hagerty shows the slow horror of exhuming people killed by repressive regimes

Furrows row pattern in a plowed field prepared for planting crops in spring. Growing wheat crop in springtime. Horizontal view in perspective with cloud and blue sky background.; Shutterstock ID 423151204; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Was the shift to farming really the worst mistake in human history?

22 February 2023

The notion that our ancestors’ shift from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to farming was disastrous for our health is well established, but a new study should prompt a rethink, says Michael Marshall

3D models of the femur and ulnae of Sahelanthropus tchadensis

Human ancestors may have walked on two legs 7 million years ago

24 August 2022

An analysis of thigh and forearm bones from Sahelanthropus tchadensis suggests the early hominin was mainly bipedal, but the claim is controversial

Homo bodoensis, a new species of human ancestor, lived in Africa during the Middle Pleistocene.

New human species has been named Homo bodoensis - but it may not stick

28 October 2021

Researchers who reanalysed ancient fossils say they come from a new group of hominins living in Africa around 600,000 years ago, and so deserve a new species name

Homo erectus used two different kinds of stone tools

5 March 2020

Skull fragments from Homo erectus found alongside stone tools in Ethiopia suggest the ancient hominin used more tool technology than we thought

Hieroglyphics

4 February 2020

Hieroglyphics is a writing system invented in Egypt around 5000 years ago.

A skull suggests humans have been getting piercings for 12,000 years

27 January 2020

The teeth of a man who lived in prehistoric Africa are worn in a way that suggests he had three facial piercings, the second oldest such find in the world

Why walking your way to better health isn't all about step counting

8 January 2020

Changing your footwear could be kind to your knees, a different gait could lift your mood, but the real secret of successful walking is even simpler

Humans across cultures may share the same universal musical grammar

21 November 2019

Music appears to be made from the same simple building blocks of pitches and chords around the world, upending the prevailing view that universals don’t exist