Human childbirth is comparatively difficult because our babies' heads are large relative to our birth canals. This tight 'fetopelvic' fit increases the risk of obstructed labor, which in turn has potentially dire outcomes ...
Evolution
Apr 13, 2021
1
185
The human brain as we know it today is relatively young. It evolved about 1.7 million years ago when the culture of stone tools in Africa became increasingly complex. A short time later, the new Homo populations spread to ...
Evolution
Apr 8, 2021
0
252
Ancient DNA from Neandertals and early modern humans has recently shown that the groups likely interbred somewhere in the Near East after modern humans left Africa some 50,000 years ago. As a result, all people outside Africa ...
Evolution
Apr 7, 2021
4
109
The pelvis is the part of the human skeleton with the largest differences between females and males. The female birth canal is on average more spacious and exhibits shape features that enable birth of a large baby with a ...
Evolution
Mar 25, 2021
4
1362
An international group of researchers led by the University of Adelaide has conducted a comprehensive genetic analysis and found no evidence of interbreeding between modern humans and the ancient humans known from fossil ...
Evolution
Mar 23, 2021
8
207
In a comment published today in Nature Astronomy, Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute, challenges assumptions about the possibility of modern life on Mars held by many ...
Astrobiology
Mar 16, 2021
1
131
Bacteria integrate genetic material from other bacterial strains more easily than previously thought, which can lead to improved fitness and accelerated evolution. This is shown in a recent study by biophysicists at the University ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 8, 2021
0
119
East Asia today harbors more than a fifth of the world's population and some of the most deeply branching modern human lineages outside of Africa. The archaeological record attests that this region was also one of the earliest ...
Biotechnology
Feb 22, 2021
0
23
A new study published in the journal Science Advances shows that Bantu-speaking communities in the Congo rainforest underwent a major population collapse from 1600 to 1400 years ago, probably due to a prolonged disease epidemic, ...
Archaeology
Feb 12, 2021
2
189
A team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in China, along with one from Australia, one from Taiwan and one from the U.S., has found evidence that contradicts the finding of a prior effort that reported ...
