New three-foot-tall relative of Tyrannosaurus rex

A new relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex—much smaller than the huge, ferocious dinonsaur made famous in countless books and films, including, yes, "Jurassic Park—has been discovered and named by a Virginia Tech paleontologist ...

First hominins on the Tibetan Plateau were Denisovans

So far, Denisovans were only known from a small collection of fossil fragments from Denisova Cave in Siberia. A research team now describes a 160,000-year-old hominin mandible from Xiahe in China. Using ancient protein analysis, ...

A history of the Crusades, as told by crusaders' DNA

History can tell us a lot about the Crusades, the series of religious wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the Near East. But the DNA of nine 13th century Crusaders buried in a pit ...

Switch from hunting to herding recorded in ancient pee

The transition from hunting and gathering to farming and herding is considered a crucial turning point in the history of humanity. Scholars think the intensive food production that came along with the Neolithic Revolution, ...

Need for social skills helped shape modern human face

The modern human face is distinctively different to that of our near relatives and now researchers believe its evolution may have been partly driven by our need for good social skills.

Ancient DNA reveals new branches of the Denisovan family tree

It's widely accepted that anatomically modern humans interbred with their close relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, as they dispersed out of Africa. But a study examining DNA fragments passed down from these ancient ...

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