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Science 2021 04;372(6538):165-171

Department of Anthropology and Anthropological Museum, University of Zurich, CH-8052 Zurich, Switzerland.

The brains of modern humans differ from those of great apes in size, shape, and cortical organization, notably in frontal lobe areas involved in complex cognitive tasks, such as social cognition, tool use, and language. When these differences arose during human evolution is a question of ongoing debate. Here, we show that the brains of early from Africa and Western Asia (Dmanisi) retained a primitive, great ape-like organization of the frontal lobe. Read More

Science 2020 10 29;370(6516):557-564. Epub 2020 Oct 29.

Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation.

Dogs were the first domestic animal, but little is known about their population history and to what extent it was linked to humans. We sequenced 27 ancient dog genomes and found that all dogs share a common ancestry distinct from present-day wolves, with limited gene flow from wolves since domestication but substantial dog-to-wolf gene flow. By 11,000 years ago, at least five major ancestry lineages had diversified, demonstrating a deep genetic history of dogs during the Paleolithic. Read More

Science 2020 04;368(6487):194-197

Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA.

Phylogenetic evidence suggests that platyrrhine (or New World) monkeys and caviomorph rodents of the Western Hemisphere derive from source groups from the Eocene of Afro-Arabia, a landmass that was ~1500 to 2000 kilometers east of South America during the late Paleogene. Here, we report evidence for a third mammalian lineage of African origin in the Paleogene of South America-a newly discovered genus and species of parapithecid anthropoid primate from Santa Rosa in Amazonian Perú. Bayesian clock-based phylogenetic analysis nests this genus () deep within the otherwise Afro-Arabian clade Parapithecoidea and indicates that transatlantic rafting of the lineage leading to likely took place between ~35 and ~32 million years ago, a dispersal window that includes the major worldwide drop in sea level that occurred near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Read More

Science 2019 11 10;366(6466):731-734. Epub 2019 Oct 10.

Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany.

Revealing and understanding the mechanisms behind social inequality in prehistoric societies is a major challenge. By combining genome-wide data, isotopic evidence, and anthropological and archaeological data, we have gone beyond the dominating supraregional approaches in archaeogenetics to shed light on the complexity of social status, inheritance rules, and mobility during the Bronze Age. We applied a deep microregional approach and analyzed genome-wide data of 104 human individuals deriving from farmstead-related cemeteries from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age in southern Germany. Read More

Science 2019 09;365(6457)

Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.

By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asians is a prehistoric genetic gradient between people related to early hunter-gatherers of Iran and Southeast Asia. After the Indus Valley Civilization's decline, its people mixed with individuals in the southeast to form one of the two main ancestral populations of South Asia, whose direct descendants live in southern India. Simultaneously, they mixed with descendants of Steppe pastoralists who, starting around 4000 years ago, spread via Central Asia to form the other main ancestral population. Read More

Science 2018 07;361(6397):88-92

Anthropological and Paleoenvironmental Department, Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi, Vietnam.

The human occupation history of Southeast Asia (SEA) remains heavily debated. Current evidence suggests that SEA was occupied by Hòabìnhian hunter-gatherers until ~4000 years ago, when farming economies developed and expanded, restricting foraging groups to remote habitats. Some argue that agricultural development was indigenous; others favor the "two-layer" hypothesis that posits a southward expansion of farmers giving rise to present-day Southeast Asian genetic diversity. Read More

Science 2018 06;360(6392):1024-1027

Huron-Wendat Nation, Canada.

Little is known regarding the first people to enter the Americas and their genetic legacy. Genomic analysis of the oldest human remains from the Americas showed a direct relationship between a Clovis-related ancestral population and all modern Central and South Americans as well as a deep split separating them from North Americans in Canada. We present 91 ancient human genomes from California and Southwestern Ontario and demonstrate the existence of two distinct ancestries in North America, which possibly split south of the ice sheets. Read More

Science 2018 07 17;361(6397):92-95. Epub 2018 May 17.

Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Southeast Asia is home to rich human genetic and linguistic diversity, but the details of past population movements in the region are not well known. Here, we report genome-wide ancient DNA data from 18 Southeast Asian individuals spanning from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age (4100 to 1700 years ago). Early farmers from Man Bac in Vietnam exhibit a mixture of East Asian (southern Chinese agriculturalist) and deeply diverged eastern Eurasian (hunter-gatherer) ancestry characteristic of Austroasiatic speakers, with similar ancestry as far south as Indonesia providing evidence for an expansive initial spread of Austroasiatic languages. Read More

Science 2017 11 28;358(6363):652-655. Epub 2017 Sep 28.

Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18C, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.

Southern Africa is consistently placed as a potential region for the evolution of We present genome sequences, up to 13x coverage, from seven ancient individuals from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The remains of three Stone Age hunter-gatherers (about 2000 years old) were genetically similar to current-day southern San groups, and those of four Iron Age farmers (300 to 500 years old) were genetically similar to present-day Bantu-language speakers. We estimate that all modern-day Khoe-San groups have been influenced by 9 to 30% genetic admixture from East Africans/Eurasians. Read More

Science 2015 Aug 21;349(6250):aab3884. Epub 2015 Jul 21.

Department of Evolutionary Biology and Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.

How and when the Americas were populated remains contentious. Using ancient and modern genome-wide data, we found that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans, including Athabascans and Amerindians, entered the Americas as a single migration wave from Siberia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago (ka) and after no more than an 8000-year isolation period in Beringia. After their arrival to the Americas, ancestral Native Americans diversified into two basal genetic branches around 13 ka, one that is now dispersed across North and South America and the other restricted to North America. Read More

Science 2014 Aug;345(6200):1255832

Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Ancestry.com DNA LLC, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.

The New World Arctic, the last region of the Americas to be populated by humans, has a relatively well-researched archaeology, but an understanding of its genetic history is lacking. We present genome-wide sequence data from ancient and present-day humans from Greenland, Arctic Canada, Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Siberia. We show that Paleo-Eskimos (~3000 BCE to 1300 CE) represent a migration pulse into the Americas independent of both Native American and Inuit expansions. Read More

Science 2014 Jul 24;345(6195):390. Epub 2014 Jul 24.

Program in Human Ecology and Archaeobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA.

Science 2014 Apr;344(6182):360

Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Schwartz et al. hold that variation among the Dmanisi skulls reflects taxic diversity. The morphological observations to support their hypothesis, however, are partly incorrect, and not calibrated against intraspecific variation in living taxa. Read More

Science 2013 Apr;340(6129):1234598

Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

The shape of the thorax of early hominins has been a point of contention for more than 30 years. Owing to the generally fragmentary nature of fossil hominin ribs, few specimens have been recovered that have rib remains complete enough to allow accurate reassembly of thoracic shape, thus leaving open the question of when the cylindrical-shaped chest of humans and their immediate ancestors evolved. The ribs of Australopithecus sediba exhibit a mediolaterally narrow, ape-like upper thoracic shape, which is unlike the broad upper thorax of Homo that has been related to the locomotor pattern of endurance walking and running. Read More

Science 2009 May 30;324(5930):1035-44. Epub 2009 Apr 30.

Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.

Africa is the source of all modern humans, but characterization of genetic variation and of relationships among populations across the continent has been enigmatic. We studied 121 African populations, four African American populations, and 60 non-African populations for patterns of variation at 1327 nuclear microsatellite and insertion/deletion markers. We identified 14 ancestral population clusters in Africa that correlate with self-described ethnicity and shared cultural and/or linguistic properties. Read More

Science 2009 Jan;323(5911):223-6

School of Philosophy and Anthropological Studies, Queen's University of Belfast, University Road Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT7 1NN, UK.

Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection has been hailed as one of the most innovative contributions to modern science. When first proposed in 1859, however, it was widely rejected by his contemporaries, even by those who accepted the general idea of evolution. This article identifies those aspects of Darwin's work that led him to develop this revolutionary theory, including his studies of biogeography and animal breeding, and his recognition of the role played by the struggle for existence. Read More

Science 2003 Feb;299(5610):1221-5

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, 5 Research Court, Rockville, MD 20850, USA.

The ability to taste the substance phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) has been widely used for genetic and anthropological studies, but genetic studies have produced conflicting results and demonstrated complex inheritance for this trait. We have identified a small region on chromosome 7q that shows strong linkage disequilibrium between single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and PTC taste sensitivity in unrelated subjects. This region contains a single gene that encodes a member of the TAS2R bitter taste receptor family. Read More

Science 2002 Oct;298(5591):63-4

History of Science Program, School of Anthropological Studies, Queen's University, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK.

Science 2001 Aug;293(5533):1246-9

Science 2001 Jan;291(5503):416-21

Science 2000 Aug;289(5481):855-7

Here at the "Body Farm," a research plot where human corpses are studied as they decompose, the corpses are teaching scientists much about how to reconstruct the manner and circumstances of unexplained deaths. In fact, new techniques developed at the site, officially known as the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's, Anthropological Research Facility, are already beginning to land criminals behind bars. Read More

Science 1994 Apr;264(5155):20-2

Science 1992 Oct;258(5081):455-7

Institut für Humanbiologie, Universität Wien, Austria.

The corpse of a Late Neolithic individual found in a glacier in Oetztal is unusual because of the intact nature of all body parts that resulted from the characteristics of its mummification process and its protected geographical position with regard to glacier flow. Anthropological data indicate that the man was 25 to 40 years old, was between 156 and 160 centimeters in stature, had a cranial capacity of between 1500 and 1560 cubic centimeters, and likely died of exhaustion. Read More

Science 1989 Dec;246(4934):1113-4

Science 1988 May;240(4856):1146-8

Science 1988 May;240(4855):1080-2

Science 1988 Feb;239(4843):985-92

Blood revenge is one of the most commonly cited causes of violence and warfare in tribal societies, yet it is largely ignored in recent anthropological theories of primitive warfare. A theory of tribal violence is presented showing how homicide, revenge, kinship obligations, and warfare are linked and why reproductive variables must be included in explanations of tribal violence and warfare. Studies of the Yanomamö Indians of Amazonas during the past 23 years show that 44 percent of males estimated to be 25 or older have participated in the killing of someone, that approximately 30 percent of adult male dealths are due to violence, and that nearly 70 percent of all adults over an estimated 40 years of age have lost a close genetic relative due to violence. Read More

Science 1986 Dec;234(4783):1509-15

It has long been thought that farming and herding were comparatively recent introductions into the Kalahari and that it has been a preserve of foraging "Bushmen" for thousands of years. Agropastoral Bantu-speakers were thought to have entered this region only within the last two centuries. However, fully developed pastoralism and metallurgy are now shown to have been established in the Kalahari from A. Read More

Science 1982 Sep;217(4563):898-903

There has been speculation that China's communes are undergoing drastic changes and that work patterns are being redefined so as to make individuals or households the basic production units in agriculture. A brief but intensive anthropological study in 17 communes suggests that, although collectivization is still considered to be the ideal form in more advanced areas, responsibility for some tasks is being assigned to households in some poorer communes in an effort to increase production and farm incomes and enhance development. Significant permanent improvements seem hinged to the rise of rural industry, which increasingly rewards individual efforts within the context of a basically collective social organization. Read More

Science 1982 Jan;215(4529):144-5