Early Humans News

January 2, 2026

Top Headlines

New Fossils in Qatar Reveal a Tiny Sea Cow Hidden for 21 Million Years

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 ...

Scientists Find a Surprising Link Between Lead and Human Evolution

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 ...

From Poison to Power: How Lead Exposure Helped Shape Human Intelligence

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 ...

The Hidden Denisovan Gene That Helped Humans Conquer a New World

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 ...

Forgotten Royal Warship Sunk 500 Years Ago Reveals Surprising Secrets

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 ...

Ancient DNA Finally Solves the Mystery of the World’s First Pandemic

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 ...

The First Pandemic? Scientists Find 214 Ancient Pathogens in Prehistoric DNA

July 11, 2025 Scientists have uncovered DNA from 214 ancient pathogens in prehistoric humans, including the oldest known evidence of plague. The findings show zoonotic diseases began spreading around 6,500 years ...

New Velvet Worm Species a First for the Arid Karoo

May 30, 2025 A new species of velvet worm, Peripatopsis barnardi, represents the first ever species from the arid Karoo, which indicates that the area was likely historically more forested than at present. In the Cape Fold Mountains, we now know that every ...

New Method Provides the Key to Accessing Proteins in Ancient Human Remains

May 30, 2025 A new method could soon unlock the vast repository of biological information held in the proteins of ancient soft tissues. The findings could open up a new era for palaeobiological ...

Long Shot Science Leads to Revised Age for Land-animal Ancestor

May 29, 2025 The fossils of ancient salamander-like creatures in Scotland are among the most well-preserved examples of early stem tetrapods -- some of the first animals to make the transition from water to land. Thanks to new research, scientists believe that ...

Leprosy Existed in America Long Before Arrival of Europeans

May 29, 2025 Long considered a disease brought to the Americas by European colonizers, leprosy may actually have a much older history on the American continent. Scientists reveal that a recently identified second species of bacteria responsible for leprosy, ...

Chemists Recreate How RNA Might Have Reproduced for First Time

May 29, 2025 Chemists have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth -- a key process in the origin of ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:26pm EST

Earth’s Worst Extinction Was Followed by a Shockingly Fast Ocean Comeback

Dec. 30, 2025 A spectacular fossil trove on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen shows that marine life made a stunning comeback after Earth’s greatest extinction. Tens of thousands of fossils reveal fully aquatic ...

Ancient Wolves Could Only Have Reached This Island by Boat

Dec. 29, 2025 Scientists have uncovered ancient wolf remains on a small Baltic island where wolves could only have been brought by humans. These animals weren’t dogs, but true wolves that ate the same marine ...

Ancient Sewers Expose a Hidden Health Crisis in Roman Britain

Dec. 21, 2025 Sediments from a Roman latrine at Vindolanda show soldiers were infected with multiple intestinal parasites, including roundworm, whipworm, and Giardia — the first time Giardia has been identified ...

Mystery of King Tut’s Jars Solved? Yale Researchers Find Opium Clues

Dec. 18, 2025 Traces of opium found inside an ancient alabaster vase suggest drug use was common in ancient Egypt, not rare or accidental. The discovery raises the possibility that King Tut’s famous jars once ...

1.5-Million-Year-Old Fossil Face Is Forcing a Rethink of Human Origins

Dec. 17, 2025 Scientists have digitally reconstructed the face of a 1.5-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil from Ethiopia, uncovering an unexpectedly primitive appearance. While its braincase fits with classic ...

A Simple Turn Reveals a 1,500-Year-Old Secret on Roman Glass

Dec. 16, 2025 A museum visit sparked a revelation when a Roman glass cup was turned around and its overlooked markings came into focus. These symbols, once dismissed as decoration, appear to be workshop ...

Fossil Brain Scans Show Pterosaurs Evolved Flight in a Flash

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, ...

A Massive Bronze Age City Hidden for 3,500 Years Just Surfaced

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 ...

Monumental Roman Basin Hidden for 2,000 Years Unearthed Near Rome

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 ...

242-Million-Year-Old Mini Predator Changes Lizard Evolution

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 ...

A Strange Ancient Foot Reveals a Hidden Human Cousin

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 ...

55-Million-Year-Old Fossils Reveal Bizarre Crocs That Dropped from Trees

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 ...

Archaeologists May Have Finally Solved Peru’s Strange “Band of Holes” Mystery

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 ...

Science Finally Solves a 700-Year-Old Royal Murder

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 ...

2.7-Million-Year-Old Tools Reveal Humanity’s First Great Innovation

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, ...

Dinosaur Mummy Found With Hooves and a Hidden Crest

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 ...

Humans Evolved Faster Than Any Other Ape

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 ...

New Evidence Shows the Maya Collapse Was More Than Just Drought

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, ...

A 540-Million-Year-Old Fossil Is Rewriting Evolution

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. ...

3,000 Years of Secrets Hidden Beneath Egypt’s Greatest Temple

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. ...

Scientists Uncover a Mysterious Jurassic Lizard With Snake-Like Jaws

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, ...

New Neanderthal Footprints in Portugal Reveal a Life We Never Expected

Nov. 13, 2025 Footprints preserved on ancient dunes show Neanderthals actively navigating, hunting, and living along Portugal’s coastline. Their behavior and diet suggest a far more adaptable and socially ...

Archaeologists Uncover Lost Land Bridge That May Rewrite Human History

Oct. 12, 2025 New research along Turkey’s Ayvalık coast reveals a once-submerged land bridge that may have helped early humans cross from Anatolia into Europe. Archaeologists uncovered 138 Paleolithic tools ...

Woolly Mammoth Teeth Reveal the World’s Oldest Microbial DNA

Sep. 5, 2025 Scientists have uncovered microbial DNA preserved in mammoth remains dating back more than one million years, revealing the oldest host-associated microbial DNA ever recovered. By sequencing nearly ...

The Hidden Denisovan Gene Still Protecting Humans Today

Aug. 24, 2025 Scientists have discovered that a gene called MUC19, inherited from Denisovans through ancient interbreeding, may have played a vital role in helping Indigenous ancestors adapt as they migrated into ...

Ancient Tides May Have Sparked Humanity’s First Urban Civilization

Oct. 27, 2025 New research shows that the rise of Sumer was deeply tied to the tidal and sedimentary dynamics of ancient Mesopotamia. Early communities harnessed predictable tides for irrigation, but when deltas ...

140,000-Year-Old Skeleton Shows Earliest Interbreeding Between Humans and Neanderthals

Aug. 21, 2025 Scientists have uncovered the world s earliest fossil showing both Neanderthal and Homo sapiens features: a five-year-old child from Israel s Skhul Cave dating back 140,000 years. This discovery ...

New Fossils Reveal a Hidden Branch in Human Evolution

Aug. 27, 2025 Fossils unearthed in Ethiopia are reshaping our view of human evolution. Instead of a straight march from ape-like ancestors to modern humans, researchers now see a tangled, branching tree with ...

Ancient Fossil Discovery in Ethiopia Rewrites Human Origins

Aug. 21, 2025 In the deserts of Ethiopia, scientists uncovered fossils showing that early members of our genus Homo lived side by side with a newly identified species of Australopithecus nearly three million years ...

Tiny Ancient Whale With a Killer Bite Found in Australia

Aug. 13, 2025 An extraordinary fossil find along Victoria’s Surf Coast has revealed Janjucetus dullardi, a sharp-toothed, dolphin-sized predator that lived 26 million years ago. With large eyes, slicing teeth, ...