origins of humanity news stories on Newser

Skull Find Shakes Up Theories on Early Humanity

Rob Quinn — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:06:45 CDT

Theories of human evolution have been thrown into disarray by ancient human remains found in Georgia, the Independent reports. The skulls, unearthed near Tbilisi, are from 1.8 million years ago, 800,000 years before modern humanity's ancestors were believed to have first moved out of Africa. The find, scientists...

Fossil Feces Revise History

Laurel Jorgensen — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:43:50 CDT

Fossilized feces found in an Oregon cave have scientists rethinking how and when humans first came to North America. At 14,300 years old, the ancient poop was deposited at least 1,000 years before humans were thought to roam the area, National Geographic reports. Discoveries like this "help us...

New Fossil Rocks Human History

Rob Quinn — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:05:56 CDT

An incredibly old jawbone discovered in a Spanish cave could rewrite human history, scientists say. The bone with teeth is 1.2 million years old and belongs to a long-extinct human ancestor called Homo antecessor. It's at least 300,000 years older than any other human fossil found in Europe....

Kenyan Fossil Rattles Human Family Tree

Janice Eisen — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:15:52 CDT

Two of our ancestors apparently lived alongside each other in Africa rather than evolving from one to the next on the path to Homo sapiens , as scientists once believed. National Geographic reports that a Homo habilis skull dug up in Kenya is surprisingly young, making its 1.4 million-year-old owner...

Fossil Proves We're All African

Heather McPherson — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:04:11 CDT

An ancient jawbone found in Morocco suggests that modern human ancestry emerged 100,000 years earlier than previously believed—and in Africa, rather than Europe. Until now, scientists believed that modern humans didn't emerge until 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. But the Moroccan bone is 160,000 years...