Links between modern humans, Neanderthals probed

September 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Studying the ratio between the index and ring fingers of two Neanderthals and one Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, University of Liverpool researchers have shown that human ancestors conflicted on monogamy. Lead researcher Emma Nelson says that the ratio between the index and ring fingers is thought to be a telltale marker for how much an individual was exposed to the androgen class of hormones-specifically testosterone-while in the womb.

September 14th, 2009 LONDON - Archaeologists have discovered teeth and bones from late Ice Age animals, including hyenas, deer and woolly rhinos at a cave in Devon, UK, which may yield clues as to why Neanderthals became extinct. According to a report by BBC News, the dig, organised by the University of Durham and the University of Sheffield, is part of a study into Neanderthals.

August 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have determined that at least some of the European early modern humans consistently consumed fish 40,000 years ago, supplementing their diet of terrestrial animals. The study was carried out by Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University in St.

August 4th, 2009 SYDNEY - Australian scientists have developed new theory about the 'Hobbit' species in the Indonesian island of Flores, that they existed alongside humans. Archaeologists found the 'hobbit' in 2003, while excavating in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores.

July 31st, 2009 SYDNEY - A new research by Australian scientists has said that the bones of the "hobbit", found in Indonesia, suggest that the species is not related to homo sapiens, and evolved separate to humans. Discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 and dubbed 'the Hobbit', the species triggered a worldwide debate about its origins.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - The wound that killed a Neanderthal man between 50,000 and 75,000 years was most likely caused by a thrown spear, the kind modern humans used but Neanderthals did not, according to the latest research. "What we've got is a rib injury, with any number of scenarios that could explain it," said Steven Churchill, professor at Duke University.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has determined that the wound that ultimately killed a Neanderthal man between 50,000 and 75,000 years was most likely caused by a thrown spear, the kind modern humans used, thus indicating a possible case of interspecies homicide. Analysis by Steven Churchill, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, indicates that the wound was from a thrown spear, and it appears that modern humans had a thrown-weapons technology and Neanderthals didn't.

July 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, a scientist is analyzing how humans came to develop clothing, and how that innovation might have in turn given our species an evolutionary edge over other hominids. According to a report in Science Alert, the scientist in question is Ian Gilligan, a doctoral researcher from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at ANU (Australian National University).

July 8th, 2009 COPENHAGEN - A new theory has suggested that an infectious disease carried by Homo sapiens migrating out of Africa was responsible for the demise of the Neanderthal 30,000 years ago. According to a report in The Copenhagen Post, Professor emeritus Bent Sorensen of the University of Roskilde said that disease carried by Homo sapiens migrating out of Africa was responsible for the gradual extinction of our prehistoric cousins in the same way that European illnesses ravaged Native American populations in the sixteenth century.

July 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study by an international team of researchers has suggested that fish may have become an important part of the year-round diet for early humans in China as far back as 40,000 years ago. Freshwater fish are an important part of the diet of many peoples around the world, but it has been unclear when fish became an important part of the year-round diet for early humans.

June 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that necessity compelled Neanderthals to dry hunks of big game meat for easy transport. According to a report in Discovery News, the findings help to explain how Neanderthals could transport meat over long distances without it rotting, as well as how they survived the often chilly conditions of Northern Europe.

June 19th, 2009 LONDON - In a new research, a pair of scientists has suggested that weapons like spears, and a bow and arrow, go back as far back as 100,000 years ago, predating modern humans. According to a report in New Scientist, the research was done by Matthew Sisk and John Shea from Stony Brook University in New York.

May 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new analysis has indicated that Neanderthals, which are generally considered as the 'stupid' cousins of modern humans, were sophisticated, intelligent, and fearless hunters, capable of capturing the most impressive animals. Although it is now clear that Neanderthals were hunters and not scavengers, their exact hunting methods are still something of a mystery.

April 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested that Neanderthal women had equally tough time giving birth to big-headed babies as modern humans, but the infants did not have to rotate to get out like they do in human mothers. Modern women's birth canals are oval, change shape halfway down the birth canal so that they are widest from front to back at the bottom, near the pelvic outlet.

April 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested that Neanderthals may have acted in much the same way as early modern humans, and were much savvier than previously thought. According to a report in the Scientific American, to compare the behavior of Neanderthals and early moderns, paleoanthropologist Bruce Hardy of Kenyon College studied artifacts from a site in southwestern Germany called Hohle Fels.