Latest Prehistoric Africa Stories
Modern humans left Africa over 60,000 years ago in a migration that many believe was responsible for nearly all of the human population that exist outside Africa today.Now, researchers have revealed that men and women weren't equal partners in that exodus. By tracing variations in the X chromosome and in the non-sex chromosomes, the researchers found evidence that men probably outnumbered women in that migration. The scientists expect that their method of comparing X chromosomes with the...
Researchers compare cranial features using 3-D modelingUniversity of Minnesota anthropology professor Kieran McNulty (along with colleague Karen Baab of Stony Brook University in New York) has made an important contribution toward solving one of the greatest paleoanthropological mysteries in recent history -- that fossilized skeletons resembling a mythical "hobbit" creature represent an entirely new species in humanity's evolutionary chain.Discovered on the Indonesian island of...
According to researchers, a wide-hipped Homo erectus fossil found in Ethiopia suggests that females of the pre-human species gave birth to developed babies with large heads.The finding leads some researchers to believe that helpless babies came along late in human evolution."We could look at this pelvis and then, using a series of measurements, we can calculate ... how big the baby's head could be at birth," said Scott Simpson, a paleontologist at Case Western Reserve...
By Sharon Roberts TWO stories on evolution appeared in your newspaper on October 7. Evolutionists would have us believe that we are the descendants of apes and other primitive prehistoric creatures who evolved from a common ancestor that emerged from a pond billions of years ago. The latest claim is that we humans are so advanced and close to perfection now that there's not much evolving left do! That appeals strongly to human pride, but I would argue that these evolution theories are based...
By John Noble Wilford New York Times News Service When Paul C. Sereno went hunting dinosaur bones in the Sahara, his career took a sharp turn from paleontology to archaeology. The expedition found what has proved to be the largest known graveyard of Stone Age people who lived there when the desert was green. The first traces of pottery, stone tools and human skeletons were discovered eight years ago at a site in the southern Sahara in Niger. After preliminary research, Sereno, a University...
Researchers have uncovered the remains of a woman and two children in an ancient cemetery located in what is now the Sahara Desert. When they came across their skeletons, researchers found that the arms of the children were still extended to the woman in perpetual embrace in a cemetery that is providing an unprecedented view of how two civilizations lived there.Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and his colleagues came across the skeletons while searching for the remains of dinosaurs in...
LOS ANGELES, July 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The screening of National Lampoon's "Homo Erectus" was so raucous last night, it looked like a scene cut straight from the film. The July 9th event was hosted by Ain't It Cool News, and shortly after filling the Hollywood Egyptian Theatre to capacity, threats of shutting down the screener rang from the upper echelons of management. Hollywood celebrities and attendees alike duked it out for the remaining seats. Luckily, amidst the caveman-like rioting,...
A recent study on the future of climate changes suggests that the once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed. The study's lead author said that parts of the Sahara now show signs of a tiny shift back towards greener conditions, apparently due to global warming.The researchers looked at ancient pollen, spores and aquatic organisms in sediments in Lake Yoa in northern Chad that show that the region gradually shifted from...
An extensive genetic study released Thursday said that humans may have narrowly escaped extinction brought on by a drought some 70,000 years ago, after which the entire population was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa. The report notes that a separate Stanford University study estimated the number may have dwindled to as low as 2,000 before expanding again in the early Stone Age."This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the...
A 6 million-year-old early relative of modern humans apparently walked on two feet, pushing back the origins of so-called bipedalism, according to a new study of a fossil found in Kenya. "I would say at this point it's the earliest fossil hominin that we can clearly identify as bipedal," said paleoanthropologist William Jungers of Stony Brook University, who conducted a quantitative analysis with Brian Richmond of George Washington University of a fossilized femur...
