With an opposable big toe resembling a human thumb, the fossilized Burtele foot suggested its owner was a skilled climber, ...

With the help of newly identified bones, an enigmatic 3.4-million-year-old hominin foot found in 2009, is assigned to a ...

Long before factories, mines, and cars filled the air with pollution, our distant ancestors were already living with a silent toxin: lead. A groundbreaking study reveals that hominids — from early ...

Researchers found that ancient hominids—including early humans—were exposed to lead throughout childhood, leaving chemical ...

A 3.4-million-year-old Ethiopia foot fossil reveals a new human relative, changing what scientists know about early human evolution.

For decades, textbooks painted a dramatic picture of early humans as tool-using hunters who rose quickly to the top of the food chain. The tale was that Homo habilis, one of the earliest ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Rice University (THE CONVERSATION) Almost 2 million years ...

A fossilized foot uncovered in northeastern Ethiopia has led scientists to identify a previously unknown human relative that lived about 3.4 million years ago. The discovery, detailed in the journal ...

The discovery clashes with the traditional image of humans evolving on the savannas of East Africa. By Carl Zimmer For generations, scientists looked to the East African savanna as the birthplace of ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Humans are the only animal that lives in virtually every possible environment, from rainforests to deserts to tundra. “Our superpower is that we are ecosystem generalists,” said ...

Along the ancient banks of a river in what is now northern Israel, scientists have uncovered surprising details about the diets of early humans. The discovery challenges a long-standing belief—that ...