Extensive ocher use reflects the culture and cognitive abilities of early humans, who inherited an affinity for red from primate ancestors. Twenty-three million years ago, our distant ancestors gained trichromatic…
Our species devotes a singular amount of time to an utterly unserious aspect of life: play. This begs the question: what is the adaptive value of horsing around? What possible…
I remember the first time I observed my daughter pointing. We were at a neighborhood playgroup, a daily gathering of toddlers and their parents, and 12-month-old Tessa pointed at a…
It’s surprising that human infants as young as 10 months may be able to identify social rank. Research suggests that infants learn to distinguish who around them is dominant, using relative body…
We need a broad comparative lens to produce useful explanations and narratives of our origins across time. While the circumstances that led to the emergence of anatomically modern humans (AMH)…
Evolutionary theory or the Darwinian theory of Natural Selection explains how biological life has developed and evolved to its present state on our planet. Darwin’s theory proposes that Individuals of…
Spectacular archeological finds reveal the true past of the first Europeans. When I began studying human prehistory in the mid-1990s, little did I know that I would witness a paradigm…
Anthropological science is our species’ attempt to address our most fundamental questions about who we are and how we got here. It asks for evidence of the evolutionary path we…
In December 1982, a geologist digging in India’s Central Narmada Valley found something he did not expect. Arun Sonakia, who at the time worked for the Geological Survey of India,…
Our species stands out from the animal kingdom in many ways. Some of them are obvious: we are big-brained primates who use tools and language, a social species with symbols,…
New findings and significant advances in research have scientists rethinking our origins, and museums around the world are working to catch the public up. Breakthrough anthropological and scientific findings have…
The sperm whale is extreme. They have the largest brains and the largest noses on Earth. The sperm whale’s nose is a huge and sophisticated sonar device that produces the…
Do living beings learn and pass on to future generations some behaviors or predispositions more easily than others––and if so, how? So-called prepared learning is a question psychologists and other…
The science of rhythm across species is a new and growing research field, as yet without agreement on the question of whether the phenomenon of rhythm exists for every species.…
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