Once they had thought the development of a large brain or the making and use of stone tools was the pivotal early evolutionary innovation setting human ancestors, the hominids, apart from the apes.

As the African landscape shifted gradually from dense forests toward large patches of savannah, early hominids found their food supplies waning, leading them to descend from the trees and become ...

leading paleoanthropologists to infer that these fossils represent early members of the hominin lineage. The first human-like traits to appear in the hominin fossil record are bipedal walking and ...

A stunning discovery in China is shaking up what we thought we knew about human evolution. Scientists have uncovered a hominid skull, nicknamed “Dragon Head,” near Hualongdong that doesn’t fit ...

For those early hominids, a fire at night served as a light source and a way to deter predators. John Gowlett, a University of Liverpool ar­chaeologist, argues that this innovation led to a ...

Early hominids may have found those four sharp teeth at the corners of the jaws a handy weapon for taking prey, preventing others from taking them prey and competing for mates. Over millions of ...

The excavation of bone tools at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania expands the range of ancient hominids’ cultural innovations.