Archaeology

Fossil suggests evolutionary order requires revision

Analysis suggests genetic mixing occurred in Africa around 35,000 years ago

Hominins with different toolmaking technologies coexisted

Human molars and jaws responded to the invention of cooking by getting smaller. Fossils thus indicate that controlled-fire cooking probably originated about 1.9 million years ago. Cynthia Graber reports

Mummy analysis finds that fat-based product held styles in place.

A single large baby suggests that plesiosaurs cared for their young.

What if, by some fluke of evolutionary history, dinosaurs never went extinct? A geologist's imaginings of this scenario now bear a remarkable resemblance to creatures preserved in recent discoveries

Skull scans suggest that the small-brained Indonesian hominid was a modern human suffering from a developmental disorder.

Egypt had a revolution, but Zahi Hawass, the larger-than-life minister of antiquities, is still calling his own shots and making no apologies

Exploding with lightning

Thieves took advantage of the recent chaos in Egypt to steal priceless artifacts. The country's minister of antiquities explains how he got them back