Aux origines

DNA from Ethiopian man predates the movement of Eurasian farmers "back to Africa"

L’ADN de ce fossile vieux de 4 500 ans confirme que les Africains actuels comptent parmi leurs ancêtres des agriculteurs venus du Moyen-Orient.

The newly discovered human, Homo naledi, is special in so many ways. Likely having roots at the base of our very own genus, homo, this mesmeric yet controversial species is arguably one of the most significant human ancestor finds to date. But despite the bounty of information already accrued, our learning journey for this truly unique species is far from over. Two new papers are evidence of that, dedicated entirely to the hand and foot of this hominin.

Qui sont les premiers représentants de la lignée humaine ? Combien étaient-ils ? Comment vivaient-ils ? Pourquoi certaines espèces ont-elles disparu ? Néandertal et Homo sapiens se sont-ils rencontrés ? En quoi nos ancêtres se distinguent-ils de nous ? Qu’est-ce que le changement néolithique ?

C'est un peu la surprise de ce début de mois d'octobre : on n'attendait en effet pas trop de nouvelles du tombeau d'Amphipolis, en Grèce : la...

Early human species may have had sharper hearing in certain frequencies than we enjoy, to facilitate short-range communication in an open environment. Cynthia Graber reports

SCIENCES - Des chercheurs ont découvert les ossements de 15 hominidés qui appartiendraient à "une nouvelle espèce du genre humain". 

The first ancient human genome from Africa to be sequenced has revealed that a wave of migration back into Africa from Western Eurasia around 3,000 years ago was up to twice as significant as previously thought, and affected ...

Un vieux foetus de 48 millions d'années. Bien préservés, avec quasiment tous les os attachés les uns aux autres à l'exception du crâne, qui a apparemment été écrasé, ses restes ont été découverts à l'intérieur d'un fossile d'équidé, un ancêtre ancien du ch...

At what point did our ancestors learn to walk on two legs? It has long been assumed that because early human ancestors had a similar pelvis and ribcage set up – known as the “trunk” – to chimpanzees, that their ability to walk on two legs must have been limited. But new research has shown that chimps are actually far more efficient at bipedal walking than was assumed from looking solely at their skeleton, suggesting that early humans were too.  

Svante Pääbo, généticien suédois à la tête du plus grand centre allemand d'anthropologie évolutive, a introduit la génétique dans la paléoanthropologie, ouvrant la voie, en seulement trente ans, à autant de découvertes sur nos origines qu'en un siècle de recherches.

New fossil evidence suggests human ancestors may have split from chimps as early as 10 million years ago, bringing fossil evidence in line with data from molecular clocks

New evidence has emerged that the massive underground tomb in Amphipolis, Greece, which was hailed last year as the archaeological discovery of the decade, was commissioned by Alexander the Great for his close companion and general in his army,