Neanderthals Had Large Bite
	The Neanderthals emerged in Europe 350,000 years ago and later on expanded into neighboring areas of western Asia. About 45,000 years ago, the Neanderthals began to be displaced by modern humans (Homo sapiens) coming from Africa and, 24,000 years ago, they became extinct. With the passing of time, we are getting increasingly more information about our extinct cousins, like this new research, presented during an April 2008 meeting ... [read more >>]
	06 May 2008, 02:37GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Neanderthals Ate Plants
	The Neanderthals inhabited Europe and neighboring areas of western Asia. Early proto-Neanderthal feathers were found in Europe in fossils which were 350,000 years old. 130,000 years ago, fully Neanderthal traits appeared. The Neanderthals started to be displaced by modern humans (Homo sapiens) about 45,000 years ago and about 24,000 years ago, the last of the Neanderthals vanished from southern Spain. The image of a Neanderthal is that ... [read more >>]
	30 April 2008, 03:28GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Now We Can Hear Neanderthal Voices
	The last Neanderthals may have gone extinct in their last stronghold in Gibraltar 24,000 years ago, but we still can hear their voice. At least, a computer made a variant of it, in an attempt of a team led by Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, as signaled by New Scientist. Unlike modern humans, the Neanderthals could not pronounce the quantal vowels, which enable a listener differentiate the wo ... [read more >>]
	17 April 2008, 05:19GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Skulls Say It: Humans and Neanderthals Split 300,000-400,000 Years Ago
	Our closest evolutionary relative was the Neanderthal man (Homo neanderthalensis). But when did we share a common ancestor? A new research published in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" shows that gradual changes in human skull size and shape would indicate that, 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, Neanderthals and modern humans separated their evolutionary pathways. All previous estimates were DNA analy ... [read more >>]
	18 March 2008, 03:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

When Did People Start Wearing Shoes?
	Shoes have become a cultural item and what you wear tells a lot about you. They even represent a sexual item: some women look first at a man's shoes in order to assess certain things about him. Men do the same thing regarding women. But the question is: when did people start wearing shoes? A new research to be published in the "Journal of Archaeological Science" shows that it was around 40,000 years ago. Of course, f ... [read more >>]
	07 February 2008, 05:28GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Neanderthals Grew Faster than Modern Humans
	There's no living creature the same size with us to have such a long childhood. And a new research makes us even more unique: teeth show that Neanderthals matured faster than modern humans, thus the long childhood and slow development are specific to us. Amongst all primates, humans and Neanderthals included, the age of molar eruption is connected to developmental issues, like weaning and sexual maturity. There has be ... [read more >>]
	06 December 2007, 03:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Suicide Neanderthal Blonde
	You won't believe it, but the suicide blonde was Neanderthal! A new research has found that some Neanderthals were perhaps red haired and white skinned, just like modern Europeans are. "I am quite sure this variant arose like the red hair variants in modern Europeans", said lead author Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the University of Barcelona. "In the cases of both Neanderthals and modern Europeans, the gene mutation that ... [read more >>]
	26 October 2007, 03:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Talky Neanderthals?
	When you call someone "a Neanderthal", you refer to that person as extremely rude and wild. But the more we investigate our extinct cousin, the more we find out about his complexity. A new genetic research even says they could have spoken in the same manner modern humans do. Since the first discovery of a Neanderthal over 150 years ago, researchers have discovered they were as technologically advanced as our ancesto ... [read more >>]
	19 October 2007, 03:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Neanderthals Reached China!
	Neanderthals' ancestors evolved in Europe 350,000 years ago and by 130,000 years ago, genuine Neanderthals were already present. Almost 28,000 years ago they were gone, wiped out by modern men or by intermingling with them. Neanderthal remains have been found from Spain to Middle East (Israel) and Central Asia (Uzbekistan). Now, a new area must be added onto their range: China, appearing that our evolutionary cousin migr ... [read more >>]
	01 October 2007, 04:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Early Europeans Got Their Freak On with the Neanderthals
	As soon as they entered Europe, Homo sapiens interbred with the Neanderthals. At least this is what a 33,000 years old human skull found in a Romanian cave (filled also with fossils of cave bear) in 1942 suggests. This Homo sapiens skull displays a trait specific to Neanderthals, and a new research shows it as further proof of interbreeding between the two species. "The otherwise human skull has a groove at the base of the back of ... [read more >>]
	06 August 2007, 06:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Ancient Megaflood Cut off Britain from Mainland Europe
	Why does the world have to stand the British insular arrogance? Because of a biblical megaflood that cut the British Isles off from mainland Europe during the Ice Age. 3-D sonar mapping of the English Channel has shown that this must have occurred somewhere between 450,000 and 200,000 years ago. "It is probably one of the largest floods ever identified," said Phillip Gibbard, a geographer at the University of Cambridge, not i ... [read more >>]
	19 July 2007, 05:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

We All Originated in Africa
	No hanky spanky with the Neanderthals, or ape-men (Homo erectus) in our family tree. A new study shows that we are 100 % an African product. This is the result of a comparison of skulls and DNA of human remains found worldwide. It appears that human species living elsewhere in the world did not contribute to our ancestry. The team led by Andrea Manica at the University of Cambridge, England, compared over 6,000 skulls from more than 10 ... [read more >>]
	19 July 2007, 02:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Did Early Humans Cope With the Largest Volcanic Explosion in the Last 2 Million Years?
	This eruption was almost as disastrous as the meteorite impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. 74,000 years ago, the Sumatran Toba (western Indonesia) volcano threw the world in a volcanic winter followed by a severe ice age after expelling 720 cubic miles (3,000 cubic kilometers) of magma and huge amounts of sulfuric acid that reached even Greenland. Ice cores clime records showed that the world was colder by 5.4 - 9° F (3 - 5° C) for hundr ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 03:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Oldest West European Has Been Found!
	We separated ourselves from chimps 4 million years ago. This took place in Africa. And after that, the rest of the world became a place for African colonists. When did these colonists enter Europe? We do not know for sure, but now Spanish archaelogists have discovered the oldest fossil tooth ever found in Western Europe. The early-human molar was found last Wednesday at the Sierra Atapuerca archaeological site in the Burgos Province (n ... [read more >>]
	03 July 2007, 04:19GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Real Jurassic Park with Neanderthals
	This seems like taken from the most surreal fiction, but you could soon say "Hallo" to creatures that preceded you in the evolution. A team studying Neanderthal DNA says it could be possible to build a complete Neanderthal genome, despite the degradation in time of its genetic material. The team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, also wants to reconstruct the gen ... [read more >>]
	26 June 2007, 09:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Neanderthals Experienced Technological Revolution
	We can proudly say that our species was the only innovator hominid, and our predecessors were just clumsy apes. Yet this opinion appears arrogant, as a new research has shown that in the Middle Paleolithic, some 300,000 years ago, Neanderthals were capable of innovation. The Paleolithic is regarded as a slow evolving era in cultural and evolutionary terms, with little technological or cognitive development. Later, in the Upper Paleolith ... [read more >>]
	18 June 2007, 09:27GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cannibalism Transmitted Diseases
	Like homosexuality, cannibalism can look odd by human standards, but in fact it’s widespread in the animal kingdom, and also amongst many human populations in the past, and survived till the XX th century in some areas of Central Africa, South America, New Guinea and Vanuatu. Because many infections pass from victims to consumers, diseases linked to cannibalism should be very common, fact that does not happen. This could be due to ... [read more >>]
	24 March 2007, 06:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Why Are Humans Furless?
	Desmond Morris, the famous zoologist and ethologist, called the human species "the naked ape" and said that nudity is the main trait that differentiates the human species from all other primates. There are many hypotheses trying to explain the lack of body hair in humans, including the aquatic theories. Now Medical Hypotheses has announced the winner of the 2006 David Horrobin Prize for medical theory as being Ju ... [read more >>]
	14 March 2007, 04:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

When Did People Achieve Long Childhood?
	What makes us different from the apes? Scientists say that amongst many other traits, the long childhood and delayed maturity is a characteristic tracked now in the early members of our own species in Africa. Previous studies showed that earlier hominids, like Australopithecus and Homo erectus, experienced short growth periods, more similar to chimpanzees than to modern humans. This poses a puzzle about when long child ... [read more >>]
	13 March 2007, 07:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia