Knowing that our North African ancestors were making handaxes helps scientists to understand how our human ancestors spread across the African continent.
Three upright walkers, including Lucy (center) and two specimens of Australopithecus sediba, a human ancestor from South Africa dating back nearly 2 million years.
Image compiled by Peter Schmid and courtesy of Lee R. Berger/Wikimedia Commons
No area of archaeology has seen such vibrant change in recent times than how we understand our family tree. Could 2019 be the year we learn more about our mysterious ancestor Homo erectus?
An Oldowan core freshly excavated at Ain Boucherit from which sharp-edged cutting flakes were removed.
M. Sahnouni
A new study estimates the nutritional value of human flesh and challenges the belief that prehistoric humans engaged in cannibalism just to fill their stomachs.
A prehistoric hand-held multipurpose stone tool the size of a person’s palm recovered by a farmer in Kenya. More tools were found during a search.
Stephen Thompson
Scientists are hoping that ancient stone tools found on a family farm in Kenya will add to a clearer picture of the first appearance, duration and variation of prehistoric technologies found so far.
A 700,000 year-old stone tool excavated by an Indonesian field worker at Mata Menge, Flores.
Yinika Perston
New fossil finds show the first large-bodied inhabitants of an isolated Indonesian island evolved to Hobbit-size, but they always remembered how to make and use stone tools.
Professor Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand holding the skull of Homo Naledi.
EPA/Shiraaz Mohamed
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.
Scientific evidence shows overwhelmingly that people across the world are genetic refugees from Africa.
Shutterstock
Despite science refuting the existence of different human races, people have used “race” throughout history to divide and denigrate certain people while promoting their claims of superiority.
The skull of Homo naledi is built like those of early Homo species but its brain was just more than half the size of the average ancestor from 2 million years ago.
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The era in which humans have had the power to alter the conditions for all life on Earth is widely thought to have begun with the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago. This era has been dubbed the “Anthropocene…