Recent research suggests that humankind's origins lay outside of Africa. This is the nature of science: a paradigm that cannot be questioned on a regular basis becomes a dogma.
Children gather around a fossil skull at a South African museum.
EPA/Jon Hrusa
As an intellectual history of the disciplines of paleontology and paleoanthropology, Kuljan’s book is especially adept at narrating the interwoven connections between science and power.
Upper teeth of a Neanderthal who lived about 40,000 years ago.
Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg
Anthropologists gather clues about how our ancient ancestors lived from their teeth. What will future anthropologists make of us based on the fossilized pearly whites we'll leave behind?
A 3D model of the long-lost Scalopocynodon gracilis skull.
Evolutionary Studies Unit, Wits University
An old technique to explore the inside of fossils unfortunately ended up destroying some unique specimens. New technology has been used to reconstruct one such fossil.
The earliest hominin cancer.
Patrick Randolph-Quinney (University of Central Lancashire/University of the Witwatersrand)
Cancer is not the modern disease many believe it to be. New fossil evidence from two South African caves suggests that its origins lie deep in prehistory.
Australopithecus afarensis, the ultimate human ancestor.
wikimedia
The big question being asked is: where does Homo naledi fit in the evolutionary tree? Assessing the similarity or dissimilarity between fossil skulls has provided a possible clue to the answer.
3D virtual reconstruction of two-million-year-old ear.
Rolf Quam
Rolf Quam, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Beyond the cool factor of figuring out hominin hearing capacities two million years ago, these findings could help answer the tantalizing question of when did human vocalized language first emerge.
Scientists get their teeth into A. deyiremeda fossils.
Credit: Laura Dempsey