Experts insist there is no scientific reason for allowing these fossils to travel to space.
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Articles on Human evolution
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Ancient humans chose to sleep less, which had evolutionary benefits. For modern humans, sleeping less is futile and detrimental, but fitness may be a powerful ally in today’s epidemic of sleep loss.
There are areas of biology that may be considered optional at younger year levels, such as botany, entomology and marine ecosystems. Evolution is not one of these.
Homo naledi had a brain less than half the size of our own. Yet the new research claims it had cognitive abilities far beyond what we might expect.
Genetic evidence reveals a long, previously unknown period of adaptation to cold climates in the history of ancient human migrations across the globe.
Signs of controlled fire use from Spain are at least 50,000 years older than previous evidence.
When you stop treating AI as another human, you’ll get on with it better.
The analysis could help us understand behavioural differences between the two groups of humans.
Scientists had figured a fossil found in Spain more than a century ago was from a Neandertal. But a new analysis suggests it could be from a lost lineage of our species, Homo sapiens.
Contrary to the idea that apes evolved their upright posture to reach for fruit in the forest canopy, the earliest known ape with this stature, Morotopithecus, lived in more open grassy environments.
For more than a century, scientists have been puzzled by the set of shared changes that happen to many animals when they are domesticated.
The findings suggest we weren’t the first advanced carnivore among the hominins, as has been previously assumed.
Using a new equation based on today’s primates, scientists can take a few molar teeth from an extinct fossil species and reconstruct exactly how fast their offspring grew during gestation.
Africa’s large mammal heritage has formed a deep cultural legacy for all of humankind.
If we go far enough back in time, we all share an ancestor. And some of the features found in our bones and bodies today are a testament to that.
The way human brains develop is special – but not quite as special as you’d like to think, if we consider Neanderthals as well.
Rituals have been around for hundreds of thousands of years – but are they still useful today?
The human Y chromosome could disappear over time, putting our species in jeopardy. But some rodents have managed just fine without it – and we now know how.
It’s hard to imagine the world without Homo sapiens. But it’s unlikely we would be here if it wasn’t for a chance asteroid collision.
New genetic research shows humans’ famed ability to adapt our behaviour and develop new tools and techniques has not always been enough to survive when times have grown tough.
Top contributors
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Honorary Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney
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Professor of Natural Sciences, UCL
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Strategic Professor in Palaeontology, Flinders University
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Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Archaeology, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland
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Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), University of Wollongong
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Associate Professor of Archaeology, Griffith University
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Wood Jones Professor of Anthropological and Comparative Anatomy, University of Adelaide
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Scientia Professor of Evolutionary Ecology; Academic Lead of UNSW's Grand Challenges Program, UNSW Sydney
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Group Leader, Genomics and Bioinformatics, Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of Adelaide
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Senior Lecturer in Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences at the University of Bath, University of Bath
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Postdoctoral fellow, Australian National University
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Associate professor, University of Wollongong
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Professor, University of Wollongong
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Professor of Human Evolution, University of Cambridge
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Senior Lecturer, School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University
