Learn how early humans evolved at a much faster rate than other apes, adapting larger brains as they developed new ways to socialize. Skull diversity across great apes (orange) and gibbons (blue).

As early humans spread from lush African forests into grasslands, their need for ready sources of energy led them to develop a taste for grassy plants, especially grains and the starchy plant tissue ...

Early humans : of whom do we speak? / Richard E. Leakey -- Homo habilis - a premature discovery : remembered by one of its founding fathers, 42 years later / Phillip V. Tobias -- Where does the genus ...

The first major evolutionary change in the human diet was the incorporation of meat and marrow from large animals, which occurred by at least 2.6 million years ago. The diet of the earliest hominins ...

Life on Earth began in a way that still boggles the mind. Around 4.5 billion years ago, a chemical process called abiogenesis occurred, where life emerged from non-life. Imagine a hot, watery mix of ...

Our prehistoric human ancestors relied on deliberately modified and sharpened stone tools as early as 3.3 million years ago. The selection of rock type depended on how easily the material could be ...

Learn how our human ancestors survived and thrived during climate shifts not by eating more meat, but by mastering plant processing. The common belief about our ancient human ancestors is that they ...

Archaeologists in central China have uncovered evidence that early humans were far more inventive than long assumed. Excavations at the Xigou site reveal advanced stone tools, including the earliest ...

A skull, unearthed nearly a century ago, has led to new revelations in the study of human evolution. Known as “Dragon Man,” the fossil has now been identified as belonging to the Denisovans — a ...

Early humans began using fire to smoke and preserve meat as far back as one million years ago—not primarily for cooking, but to prevent massive elephant and hippo carcasses from rotting and to guard ...