All Stories by Bruce Bower
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LifeSurprising primate fossils found in an Indian coal mine
Bones of a 54.5-million-year-old primate suggest India might have been a hotbed of early primate evolution.
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Archaeology‘Cousin’ Lucy may have fallen from a tree to her death 3.2 million years ago
A contested study suggests that Lucy, a famous fossil ancestor of humans, fell from a tree to her death.
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TechMoral dilemma could limit appeal of driverless cars
Driverless cars will have to be programmed to decide who to save in emergencies — passengers or pedestrians. Many people aren’t yet sure they are ready to choose cars that make the most moral decision.
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HumansCave holds earliest signs of fire-making in Europe
Ancient burned bone and heated stones in a Spanish cave are the oldest evidence of ancient fire-making in Europe.
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ArchaeologyNeandertals: Ancient Stone Age builders had tech skills
Neandertals built stalagmite circles in a French cave 176,500 years ago. These structures show that these ancient human cousins had social and technical skills.
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ArchaeologyHunter-gatherers roamed Florida 14,500 years ago
Tools and bones from a submerged site in Florida show that Stone Age people lived in North America earlier than was once thought.
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ArchaeologyRemains of long-ago child sacrifices found in Belize cave
Thousands of bones in Belize’s Midnight Terror Cave show that the Maya had a long tradition of human sacrifices. New data show that many had been children.
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GeneticsPacific islanders got a double dose of Stone Age DNA
Unlike other people, certain Pacific Islanders inherited DNA from two ancient human ‘cousins.’
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HumansSlicing meat may have aided human evolution
An experiment with modern-day humans shows how slicing meat could have saved human ancestors energy — and let their bodies and brains get bigger.
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HumansNews Brief: Ancient teeth point to Neandertal relatives
New analyses of some teeth found in Siberia indicate that Neandertal cousins known as Denisovans lived there for at least 60,000 years. That would have had them around the same place as modern humans — and at nearly the same time.
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GeneticsThe earliest evidence of plague
Plague is best known as the killer disease that wiped out nearly half of Europe during the 1300s. But the germ infected people up to 3,000 years earlier than that, DNA from ancient teeth now show.
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HumansBronze Age mummies unearthed in Great Britain
Bronze Age communities from southern England to Scotland appear to mummified their dead. Tests show this occurred between roughly 3,000 and 4,000 years ago.