The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution is one of the most thoroughly-studied episodes in prehistory. But a new article shows that most explanations for it don't agree with the evidence, and offers a new interpretation.
Read moreArchaeogenetic analyses provide new insights into social inequality 4,000 years ago: nuclear families lived together with foreign women and individuals from lower social classes in the same household.
Read moreA new study offers an explanation for how ''protocells'' could have emerged on early Earth, eventually leading to the cells we know today. The work suggests that molecules called cyclophospholipids may have been the ingredient necessary for protocells to form important internal structures called vesicles, which likely kicked off the evolutionary process.
Read moreMicroliths are often interpreted as being part of composite tools, including projectile weapons, essential to efficient Homo sapiens hunting strategies. In Europe and Africa, these lithic toolkits are linked to hunting medium and large-sized animals in grassland or woodland settings, or as adaptations during periods of climatic change. The presence of microliths in Sri Lanka suggests the existence of more diverse ecological contexts for these technologies by some of the earliest members of our species.
Read moreLimnologists and other researchers show that rapid genomic changes during antagonistic species interactions are shaped by the reciprocal effects of ecology and evolution.
Read moreUnderstanding the causes and consequences of Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions is increasingly important in a world of growing human populations and climate change. A review highlights the role that cutting-edge scientific methods can play in broadening the discussions about megafaunal extinction and enabling insights into ecosystems and species-specific responses to climate change and human activities.
Read moreIf 'Why?' is the first question in science, 'Why not?' must be a close second. Sometimes it's worth thinking about why something does not exist. Such as a truly three-legged animal. At least one researcher has been pondering the non-existence of tripeds.
Read moreBefore the French Revolution, family trees were reserved for the feudal upper classes, who used them to consolidate their social status. While feudalism broke down and family trees lost their old roles, the trees gained new functions as scientific models.
Read moreA team of evolutionary biologists have demonstrated that some limb muscles known to be present in many mammals but absent in the adult human are actually formed during early human development and then lost prior to birth. These findings offer insight into how our arms and legs evolved from our mammalian ancestors, and also help explain rare limb anomalies found in humans born with congenital malformations.
Read moreScientists have shown for the first time that cooking food fundamentally alters the microbiomes of both mice and humans, a finding with implications both for optimizing our microbial health and for understanding how cooking may have altered the evolution of the our microbiomes during human prehistory.
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