Anthropology News
December 12, 2025
Top Headlines
Dec. 12, 2025 Fossils from Qatar have revealed a small, newly identified sea cow species that lived in the Arabian Gulf more than 20 million years ago. The site contains the densest known collection of fossil sea cow bones, showing that these animals once thrived ...
Nov. 16, 2025 Researchers found that ancient hominids—including early humans—were exposed to lead throughout childhood, leaving chemical traces in fossil teeth. Experiments suggest this exposure may have driven genetic changes that strengthened ...
Nov. 13, 2025 Researchers discovered that living horsetails act like natural distillation towers, producing bizarre oxygen isotope signatures more extreme than anything previously recorded on Earth—sometimes resembling meteorite water. By tracing these isotopic ...
Oct. 26, 2025 Dinosaurs weren’t dying out before the asteroid hit—they were thriving in vibrant, diverse habitats across North America. Fossil evidence from New Mexico shows that distinct “bioprovinces” of dinosaurs existed until the very end. Their ...
Oct. 26, 2025 New research shows that hippos lived in central Europe tens of thousands of years longer than previously thought. Ancient DNA and radiocarbon dating confirm they survived in Germany’s Upper Rhine Graben during a milder Ice Age phase. Closely ...
Oct. 26, 2025 Researchers have uncovered microbial evidence in the remains of Napoleon’s soldiers from the 1812 Russian retreat. Genetic analysis revealed pathogens behind paratyphoid and relapsing fever, diseases likely contributing to the army’s massive ...
Oct. 16, 2025 Long before humans built cities or wrote words, our ancestors may have faced a hidden threat that shaped who we became. Scientists studying ancient teeth found that early humans, great apes, and even Neanderthals were exposed to lead millions of ...
Oct. 7, 2025 Ancient humans crossing the Bering Strait into the Americas carried more than tools and determination—they also carried a genetic legacy from Denisovans, an extinct human relative. A new study reveals that a mysterious gene called MUC19, inherited ...
Sep. 19, 2025 From the wreck of the royal Danish-Norwegian flagship Gribshunden, archaeologists have uncovered a rare glimpse into the naval power of the late Middle Ages. This warship, lost in 1495, carried an arsenal of small guns designed for close-range ...
Aug. 30, 2025 Scientists have finally uncovered direct genetic evidence of Yersinia pestis — the bacterium behind the Plague of Justinian — in a mass grave in Jerash, Jordan. This long-sought discovery resolves a centuries-old debate, confirming that the ...
Aug. 16, 2025 Chemical evidence from a stalagmite in Mexico has revealed that the Classic Maya civilization’s decline coincided with repeated severe wet-season droughts, including one that lasted 13 years. These ...
Aug. 13, 2025 Advanced computer modeling suggests that by 2080, waves driven by sea level rise could flood Ahu Tongariki and up to 51 cultural treasures on Rapa Nui. The findings emphasize the urgent need for protective measures to preserve the island’s ...
Latest Headlines
updated 10:20am EST
Dec. 9, 2025 Ancient pterosaurs may have taken to the skies far earlier and more explosively than birds, evolving flight at their very origin despite having relatively small brains. Using advanced CT imaging, ...
Dec. 7, 2025 A new radiocarbon study has clarified the timing of the colossal Thera eruption, placing it before Egypt’s New Kingdom. Researchers analyzed artifacts tied to Pharaoh Ahmose, gaining rare access to ...
Dec. 5, 2025 An immense Bronze Age settlement has emerged from the Kazakh Steppe, revealing a surprisingly urban and industrial society where archaeologists once expected nomadic camps. At Semiyarka, researchers ...
Dec. 2, 2025 Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman city of Gabii have uncovered a massive stone-lined basin that may represent one of Rome’s earliest monumental civic structures. Its central placement ...
Dec. 1, 2025 A newly identified crocodile relative from Egypt pushes back the origins of the marine-hunting dyrosaurids by millions of years. The fossil, Wadisuchus kassabi, shows a mix of primitive and advanced ...
Nov. 30, 2025 Researchers exploring Bolivia’s Great Tectonic Lakes discovered a landscape transformed over centuries by sophisticated engineering and diverse agricultural traditions. Excavations show how ...
Nov. 30, 2025 Five hundred years ago, a Bible accidentally printed with a backwards map of the Holy Land sparked a revolution in how people imagined geography, borders, and even nationhood. Despite the blunder, ...
Nov. 30, 2025 A tiny 242-million-year-old fossil from Devon is shaking up scientists’ assumptions about the earliest members of the lizard lineage. Instead of the expected skull hinges and palate teeth typical ...
Nov. 30, 2025 Scientists have reconstructed the most complete and lifelike profile of Edmontosaurus annectens thanks to an extraordinary preservation process called clay templating, in which a thin clay film ...
Nov. 28, 2025 Researchers have finally assigned a strange 3.4-million-year-old foot to Australopithecus deyiremeda, confirming that Lucy’s species wasn’t alone in ancient Ethiopia. This hominin had an ...
Earlier Headlines
Nov. 22, 2025 Around 115 million years ago, northern Australia’s seas hosted a colossal shark that rewrites what we thought we knew about early ocean predators. New fossil discoveries show that modern-type ...
Nov. 15, 2025 Researchers have sequenced the oldest RNA ever recovered, taken from a woolly mammoth frozen for nearly 40,000 years. The RNA reveals which genes were active in its tissues, offering a rare glimpse ...
Nov. 12, 2025 Scientists have identified a new crocodile precursor that looked deceptively dinosaur-like and hunted with speed and precision. Named Tainrakuasuchus bellator, the armored “warrior” lived 240 ...
Nov. 15, 2025 Scientists uncovered Australia’s oldest known crocodile eggshells, revealing the secret lives of ancient mekosuchine crocodiles that once dominated inland ecosystems. These crocs filled surprising ...
Nov. 10, 2025 In Peru’s mysterious Pisco Valley, thousands of perfectly aligned holes known as Monte Sierpe have long puzzled scientists. New drone mapping and microbotanical analysis reveal that these holes may ...
Nov. 14, 2025 Genetic, isotopic, and forensic evidence has conclusively identified the remains of Duke Béla of Macsó and uncovered remarkable details about his life, ancestry, and violent death. The study ...
Nov. 23, 2025 Ideas about Vikings and Norse mythology come mostly from much later medieval sources, leaving plenty of room for reinterpretation. Over centuries, writers, politicians, and artists reshaped these ...
Nov. 4, 2025 Researchers uncovered a 2.75–2.44 million-year-old site in Kenya showing that early humans maintained stone tool traditions for nearly 300,000 years despite extreme climate swings. The tools, ...
Nov. 15, 2025 Researchers digitally mapped ancient Chinese tombs and discovered that their distribution mirrors shifts in political stability, population movements, and natural geography. Peaceful, prosperous eras ...
Nov. 24, 2025 Hunter-gatherers at Poverty Point may have built its massive earthworks not under the command of chiefs, but as part of a vast, temporary gathering of egalitarian communities seeking spiritual ...
Oct. 29, 2025 UCL scientists found that human skulls evolved much faster than those of other apes, reflecting the powerful forces driving our brain growth and facial flattening. By comparing 3D models of ape ...
Nov. 4, 2025 After the collapse of the Chalcolithic culture around 3500 BCE, people in Jordan’s Murayghat transformed their way of life, shifting from domestic settlements to ritual landscapes filled with ...
Nov. 26, 2025 Researchers studying Classic Maya cities discovered that urban growth was driven by a blend of climate downturns, conflict, and powerful economies of scale in agriculture. These forces made crowded, ...
Nov. 12, 2025 Over 500 million years ago, the Cambrian Period sparked an explosion of skeletal creativity. Salterella, a peculiar fossil, defied conventions by combining two different mineral-building methods. ...
Oct. 8, 2025 Researchers confirmed that Rapa Nui’s moai statues could “walk” upright using a rocking motion, aided by rope and just a few people. Experiments with replicas and 3D models revealed design ...
Oct. 6, 2025 A sweeping new geoarchaeological study has revealed how Egypt’s famed Karnak Temple complex rose from an island amid Nile floods to become one of the ancient world’s most enduring sacred centers. ...
Oct. 4, 2025 Researchers in Alberta uncovered a fossil fish that rewrites the evolutionary history of otophysans, which today dominate freshwater ecosystems. The new species, Acronichthys maccognoi, shows early ...
Oct. 2, 2025 A strange Jurassic lizard discovered on Scotland’s Isle of Skye is shaking up what we know about snake evolution. Named Breugnathair elgolensis, the “false snake of Elgol” combined hook-like, ...
Oct. 10, 2025 Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia discovered over 170 ancient rock engravings that may be among the earliest monumental artworks in the region. Created between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago, the massive ...
Sep. 29, 2025 Scientists have named a new ichthyosaur, Eurhinosaurus mistelgauensis, from fossils found in Mistelgau, Germany. The marine reptile had a dramatic overbite similar to swordfish and unique skeletal ...
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- This Team Tried to Cross 140 Miles of Treacherous Ocean Like Stone-Age Humans—and It Worked
- Farming Without Famine: Ancient Andean Innovation Rewrites Agricultural Origins
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
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Tuesday, June 10, 2025
- What a Dinosaur Ate 100 Million Years ago—Preserved in a Fossilized Time Capsule
- 2,000 Miles Through Rivers and Ice: Mapping Neanderthals’ Hidden Superhighways Across Eurasia
Monday, June 9, 2025
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Friday, June 6, 2025
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Thursday, May 29, 2025
- Long Shot Science Leads to Revised Age for Land-Animal Ancestor
- Leprosy Existed in America Long Before Arrival of Europeans
- Anthropologists Spotlight Human Toll of Glacier Loss
- Rock Record Illuminates Oxygen History
- Dinosaurs Could Hold Key to Cancer Discoveries
- Does Planting Trees Really Help Cool the Planet?
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
- New Method Provides the Key to Accessing Proteins in Ancient Human Remains
- A Sweeping Study of 7,000 Years of Monuments in South Arabia
- Bed Bugs Are Most Likely the First Human Pest, New Research Shows
- New Velvet Worm Species a First for the Arid Karoo
- Chemists Recreate How RNA Might Have Reproduced for First Time
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
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Friday, May 23, 2025
- Earliest Use of Psychoactive and Medicinal Plant 'harmal' Identified in Iron Age Arabia
- Different Phases of Evolution During Ice Age
Thursday, May 22, 2025
- Ancient DNA Used to Map Evolution of Fever-Causing Bacteria
- Scientists Have Figured out How Extinct Giant Ground Sloths Got So Big and Where It All Went Wrong
Thursday, June 26, 2025
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Tuesday, May 20, 2025
- 'Sharkitecture:' A Nanoscale Look Inside a Blacktip Shark's Skeleton
- Research Team Traces Evolutionary History of Bacterial Circadian Clock on Ancient Earth
Friday, May 16, 2025
- Ancient Ocean Sediments Link Changes in Currents to Cooling of Northern Hemisphere 3.6 Million Years Ago
- Very Different Mammals Follow the Same Rules of Behavior
Thursday, May 15, 2025
- Asians Made Humanity's Longest Prehistoric Migration and Shaped the Genetic Landscape in the Americas
- Scientists Use Fossils to Assess the Health of Florida's Largest Remaining Seagrass Bed: Surprisingly, It's Doing Well!