Archaeology

One of the longest-running, most fervent debates in the history of human evolution research concerns the cognitive abilities of the Neandertals.

Genome comparisons reveal the DNA that distinguishes Homo sapiens from its kin

Many kinds of archaic humans walked the planet at the same time. How did Homo sapiens come to be the last species standing?

Swings between wet and dry landscapes pushed some of our ancestors toward modern traits—and killed off others

A radical new take on human evolution adds a large dose of luck to the usual story emphasizing the importance of our forebears' ability to make tools

New fossil and archaeological finds, along with insights from genetics, are upending the story of our origins

The latest molecular analyses and fossil finds suggest that the story of human evolution is far more complex—and more interesting—than anyone imagined

The German lawyer, author, poet, politician and artist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born August 28, 1749-1832) was also a mining engineer and quite interested in geology and paleontology.

A North Texas family, who discovered the skeleton of a 20,000- to 40,000-year-old mammoth while mining through sediment on their farm, is preparing to turn over the remains to a local museum. In May, Wayne McEwen and his family were gathering material from a gravel pit on their property, south of Dallas, when his son struck a 6-foot (1.8 meter) tusk while operating an excavator.

Carbon-dating improvements show that Neandertals disappeared from Europe much earlier than thought

I've just returned from LonCon3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, held at the enormous ExCel Exhibition Centre in east London. Yeah, I know, sci-fi isn't exactly a normal part of the Tet Zoo remit but, on this occasion, there really is overlap since I was there for a set of special Speculative Biology talks [...]

Egyptians used the same general formula to soak burial linens as early as 4200 B.C.