I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what an extraordinary time we are living in for paleoanthropological discovery. The saga of human origins has undergone substantial revision since the start of the new millennium—and it is more fascinating than ever. In my introduction to the September issue of Scientific American, which is devoted to the story of us, I reflect on some of the more spectacular revelations to have emerged over the past 15 years. You can read more about those finds at the links below: Rising Star Expedition An Ancestor to Call Our Own First of Our Kind: Could Australopithecus sediba Be Our Long Lost Ancestor? Stranger in a New Land The Littlest Human Rethinking “Hobbits”: What They Mean for Human Evolution When the Sea Saved Humanity Neanderthals Made Leather-Working Tools Like Those in Use Today Caveman Couture: Neandertals Rocked Dark Feathers Did Neandertals Think Like Us? Neandertal Genome Study Reveals That We Have a Little Caveman in Us Sex with Neandertals Introduced Helpful and Harmful DNA into the Modern Human Genome Sex with Other Human Species Might Have Been Secret of Homo sapiens’s Success New DNA Analysis Shows Ancient Humans Interbred with Denisovans Tibetans Inherited High-Altitude Gene from Ancient Human
Rising Star Expedition
An Ancestor to Call Our Own
First of Our Kind: Could Australopithecus sediba Be Our Long Lost Ancestor?
Stranger in a New Land
The Littlest Human
Rethinking “Hobbits”: What They Mean for Human Evolution
When the Sea Saved Humanity
Neanderthals Made Leather-Working Tools Like Those in Use Today
Caveman Couture: Neandertals Rocked Dark Feathers
Did Neandertals Think Like Us?
Neandertal Genome Study Reveals That We Have a Little Caveman in Us
Sex with Neandertals Introduced Helpful and Harmful DNA into the Modern Human Genome
Sex with Other Human Species Might Have Been Secret of Homo sapiens’s Success
New DNA Analysis Shows Ancient Humans Interbred with Denisovans
Tibetans Inherited High-Altitude Gene from Ancient Human
