Tag Archives: Ancient humans

Eleanor Scerri, Author provided Julien Louys, Griffith University; Gilbert Price, The University of Queensland; Huw Groucutt, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, and Michael Petraglia, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History If you stood in the middle of the Nefud Desert in central Arabia today, you’d be confronted on all sides by enormous sand …

Homo Yossi Zaidner Michelle Langley, Griffith University An international group of archaeologists have discovered a missing piece in the story of human evolution. Excavations at the Israeli site of Nesher Ramla have recovered a skull that may represent a late-surviving example of a distinct Homo population, which lived in and around modern-day Israel from about 420,000 to 120,000 years ago. …

Collection of sediment DNA samples in the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave. Bert Roberts, Author provided Elena Zavala, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology; Matthias Meyer, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology; Richard ‘Bert’ Roberts, University of Wollongong, and Zenobia Jacobs, University of Wollongong In the foothills of the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia lies Denisova Cave. It is the …

The research site at the Olduvai Gorge. Author supplied Julio Mercader Florin, University of Calgary The ability to adapt to changing environments has deep roots. In a technology-driven world, people tend to conflate adaptability with technological change, especially when it comes to navigating adverse climates and places. But not every technological revolution is a result of environmental change. Sometimes existing …

: Ian Cartwright/Michael Petraglia/Palaeodeserts Project Huw Groucutt, University of Oxford The Arabian Peninsula is a vast landmass at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia. Yet until the last decade almost nothing was known about early humans in the area. In the last few years the team I work with have made many remarkable discoveries in Saudi Arabia, but one thing …