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Evolution & Behaviour

showing 146-150 of 161 breaks

The daily life of Neandertals

Neandertals are our closest evolutionary relative. They have been extinct for approximately 40,000 years, but lived across Europe and West Asia where they co-existed and interbred with humans. Despite their remarkable physical and genetic similarity to us humans, our understanding of their lifestyle is limited.... click to read more

  • Andrew Farrer | PhD student at Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD), School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005 Australia
Views 6528
Reading time 4 min
published on Sep 19, 2017
Homo floresiensis – little species, big mystery

A new kind of human, Homo floresiensis was a surprise discovery in 2003 by an Australian-Indonesian archaeological team who were trying to find the origins of the first Australians. Their focus was Liang Bua cave, on the island of Flores, Indonesia. Instead of finding modern... click to read more

  • Debbie Argue | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Science, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Views 7008
Reading time 3.5 min
published on Sep 5, 2017
Food for thought: recipe for bigger brains

There are hundreds of species of primates spread all across the globe that vary greatly in both brain size and intelligence. At the extremes, the great apes (our closest living relatives) have brains that are slightly larger than those of newborn humans, while mouse lemurs... click to read more

  • Alexandra R DeCasien | PhD student at Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, USA
Views 5326
Reading time 4 min
published on Sep 4, 2017
How environment shapes…your nose

An important function of the human nose is to warm and humidify the air that we breathe in. This is important so as to prevent the inner respiratory tract from drying up, which can lead to infections. Because the shape of the nose and the... click to read more

  • Arslan Zaidi | PhD student at Department of Anthropology, PennState College of the Liberal Arts, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
  • Mark Shriver | Professor at Department of Anthropology, PennState College of the Liberal Arts, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Views 6734
Reading time 3.5 min
published on Aug 29, 2017
The mutation that allowed our brain to grow

During human evolution, one of the most remarkable events was the expansion of the upper layer of the brain: the so-called neocortex. This event took place about 2 million years ago and allowed us to develop the cognitive abilities that characterize modern day humans. In... click to read more

  • Reinier Prosee | PhD student at Department of Molecular Biology, Section of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Views 6773
Reading time 4 min
published on Aug 24, 2017