The story of “The petite bodies of the robust australopithecines” is changing in light of the last 15 years of evidence, and footprints are leading the way. www.johnhawks.net/p/the-big-fe...

The big feet of Paranthropus boisei

New analysis of footprint trackways suggest a larger body size than previously thought for this Early Pleistocene human relative.

johnhawks.net

This is so intriguing! 21 fossil footprints capturing an exact moment in time - 1.4 M (!) years ago near Lake Turkana, Kenya. The tracks reveal a group of 8 mostly adult male 𝘗. 𝘣𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘪 travelling together. Researchers think they may have formed groups for safety (think hippo-filled lakeshores)!🦛

MPI-EVA Leipzig@mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social · last wk.

Fossil #footprints in Northern #Kenya offer new insights into the body size and group dynamics of #Paranthropus boisei, a human relative that lived 1.4 million years ago. New study @pnas.org by an intl. team led by @kevinhatala.bsky.social. See: tinyurl.com/r83e4yb8 & www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Multiple trackways found in Kenya might give our hominin relative Paranthropus a size boost. I've got some cool new paleoanthropology science for you over at @smithsonianmag.bsky.social 🧪

Ancient Fossil Footsteps Found in Kenya May Hint That an Early Human Relative Was Larger Than Previously Thought

The trackway sheds light on how some hominins moved around their environments and with one another

smithsonianmag.com

New paper out in @pnas.org: Insights into hominin body size, locomotion, and behavior from Early Pleistocene trackways in northern Kenya. Link here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Insights into hominin body size, locomotion, and behavior from Early Pleistocene trackways in northern Kenya | PNAS

The Early Pleistocene fossils of the Koobi Fora Formation, northern Kenya, record two well-documented hominin genera, Homo and Paranthropus, preser...

pnas.org

Fossil #footprints in Northern #Kenya offer new insights into the body size and group dynamics of #Paranthropus boisei, a human relative that lived 1.4 million years ago. New study @pnas.org by an intl. team led by @kevinhatala.bsky.social. See: tinyurl.com/r83e4yb8 & www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Fossil footprints reveal body size and group dynamics of 1.4-million-year-old human relative

New study provides a rare snapshot of “fossil behavior” from Paranthropus boisei, an ancient hominin group in northern Kenya

tinyurl.com

📣There is still time to submit your Late Breaking Science abstract! Submissions are due February 2. bioanth.org/95th-annual-...

Late Breaking Science abstracts due February 2, 2026 - AABA

We are accepting Late Breaking Science submissions until Monday, February 2, 11:59 pm Pacific Time. The Late Breaking Science poster session will include only 40 […]

bioanth.org

American Association of Biological Anthropologists@bioanth.org · 7mo ago

The Late Breaking Science Submission Portal is now open, and 40 abstracts for the poster session will be accepted! Submit your abstracts before February 2nd via your AABA profile. www.xcdsystem.com/aaba/member/...

Join us in congratulating our outstanding members who have received the prestigious AABA annual awards for 2026. The 2026 Mid-Career Research award recipient is Katherine Amato from Northwestern University !

🧪🧬 The COD's undergraduate research symposium is an excellent way for undergrads to get experience presenting their research and networking at our national bioanthropology meeting. The abstract deadline is January 30th! Details here. bioanth.org/about/divers...

COD Undergraduate Research Symposium - AABA

The Committee on Diversity (COD) was started in order to assess disciplinary demographics and address minority representation in biological anthropology.  A survey of U.S. programs […]

bioanth.org

Students: the deadline for #AABA2026 travel awards is this week!

American Association of Biological Anthropologists@bioanth.org · 9mo ago

📆 Reminder: The deadline for Pollitzer Student Travel Awards to attend #AABA2026 in Denver is December 5. Be sure to submit your application! bioanth.org/about/willia...

A paper in Nature shows that a 3.4-million-year-old partial foot found in Ethiopia in 2009 belongs to an ancient human relative named Australopithecus deyiremeda, a more primitive species of Australopithecus than the famous ‘Lucy’ (A. afarensis). go.nature.com/49BkCZY 🏺 🧪

All NSF SBE DDRIG solicitations have been archived and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Grants currently submitted will be processed, but as always, chances of funding remain very low. This means anyone aiming for the upcoming deadline will not be able to submit. 1/3

Two postdoctoral opportunities in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University! The Pontzer Lab is hiring for projects on human ecology, energetics, and aging & health. More info: www.hbes.com/two-postdoct...

Two postdoctoral opportunities in evolutionary anthropology at Duke - HBES

https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30783 Position Description The Pontzer Lab in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University seeks two Postdoctoral Associates for research in h...

hbes.com

Join us next week on Nov 19th for a virtual workshop on writing op-eds 📝 Register here: burkinc.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

American Association of Anthropological Genetics@anthgen.bsky.social · 9mo ago

AABA/AAAG folks! Want to reach more people with your awesome science 👩‍🔬👨🏿‍🏫💀🧬🦍? Check out this upcoming writing workshop by @bioanth.org on Nov 19🗓️ ! A great way to prepare for this year's Politzer Prize op-ed style competition 👩🏿‍💻 📝(bioanth.org/about/willia...) Register here: shorturl.at/7cf9J

Paranthropus boisei is a human fossil cousin w/ giant jaws and teeth that lived in East Africa ~2.6 to 1.3 million years ago. Whether it could make & use tools has been a paleoanthropological mystery since the 1960s. Our new paper describes the first firmly associated hand and foot. 1/

New fossils reveal the hand of Paranthropus boisei - Nature

Analyses of newly discovered hand and foot bones of a Paranthropus boisei specimen provide insight into possible tool use and other palaeobiology characteristics among Plio-Pleistocene hominin species...

nature.com

Do you want to support students attending #AABA2026? Get your #AABA2026 t-shirt or hoodie! Proceeds will fund our various student programs www.bonfire.com/sales-will-s...

AABA 2026 Denver, CO Meeting Swag | Bonfire

Buy AABA 2026 Denver, CO Meeting Swag merchandise that supports American Association Of Physical Anthropologists. Featuring Heather Carolina Blue Premium Unisex Tees, professionally printed in the USA...

bonfire.com

Interested in becoming more involved in AABA? The deadline for nominations for President-Elect, Vice President, and Secretary are due October 15! bioanth.org/95th-annual-...

📌 Students attending #AABA2026: we've made some changes to simplify the submission process for Student Presentation Awards. Your award application is now due October 15, 2025, the same day as abstracts are due. 📖 Read about it here: bioanth.org/about/studen...

Student Presentation Awards - AABA

The AABA has long recognized the important contributions made to our discipline by students. Their work reflects the promise and future of our field. Conferring […]

bioanth.org

📣 The abstract portal for #AABA2026 in Denver is open! Please read the abstract guidelines carefully before submitting your abstract. Submissions are due by October 15, 2025. bioanth.org/95th-annual-...

New essay about our collaborative deep history work in Tanzania! Thanks to @sapiens.org for inviting me to contribute & for editorial support Fidelis Masao, Husna Mashaka, Sam Porter, & many more contribute to this work. Thanks @leakeyfoundation.org @asubeinghuman.bsky.social & @asuiho.bsky.social

I'm recruiting a PhD student to join the lab at @gtsciences.bsky.social in Fall 2026! Broad taxonomic and topical freedom under the umbrella of vertebrate joint form and function. Information here: www.manafzadeh.com – please share 🦴🩻

Armita R. Manafzadeh@armanafzadeh.bsky.social · last yr.

✨Some news✨: after finishing my postdoc, I’ll be starting my lab as an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech. Join us in Atlanta to study how joints work and where they come from!

Breaking the barriers! Important new paper by Daniel Green and others discovering 18 million years of proteins of East African mammals! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Eighteen million years of diverse enamel proteomes from the East African Rift - Nature

The isolation of dental proteins from fossils deposited 1.5 million to 18 million years ago in the Turkana Basin in Kenya, a tropical region, demonstrate the promise of dental enamel for palaeoproteom...

nature.com

Hello, Our paper on enamel proteins from Paranthropus robustus has finally been peer reviewed, please have a read here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Paranthropus robustus has been puzzling scientists since its discovery in 1938 in South Africa, where a high number of fossils have been found.

Enamel proteins reveal biological sex and genetic variability in southern African Paranthropus

Paranthropus robustus is a morphologically well-documented Early Pleistocene hominin species from southern Africa with no genetic evidence reported so far. In this work, we describe the mass spectrome...

doi.org

I am offering two 4-year PhD positions (fully funded) and a 57 month combined post-doc / project manager position as part of my NWO-Vici grant, which starts in September.

Unearthing the Past: The New Turkana Footprints with Dr. Kevin Hatala youtu.be/vX-b4L3cxW0 @kevinhatala.bsky.social

Unearthing the Past: The New Turkana Footprints with Dr. Kevin Hatala

YouTube video by World of Paleoanthropology

youtu.be

Really happy to see this paper out, using field biomechanics we show that wild chimpanzees don't just randomly select plants materials for termite fishing tools – they use a little “folk physics” choosing materials with specific properties! Study in iScience www.cell.com/iscience/ful.... 1/5

Engineering skills in the manufacture of tools by wild chimpanzees

Biological sciences; Zoology; Evolutionary biology

cell.com

Want to move to Spain? Do you study craniodental evolution in human and non-human primate evolution? Looking for postdoc position? Interested in working with my @Tied2Teeth group here @CENIEH??? Deadline to apply: 28 March 2025 www.cenieh.es/en/about-cen...

🎊 Congratulations to the ten #AABA2025 student prize winners and honorable mentions! bioanth.org/about/studen...

Our new paper 🥲 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The earliest human face of Western Europe - Nature

A Homo aff. erectus individual dated to 1.4 million to 1.1 million years ago found at Sima del Elefante (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) does not display the modern-human-like aspect of Homo antecess...

nature.com

🥁 Congratulations to the 76 awardees of the 2025 William S. Pollitzer Student Travel Award! The Pollitzer Student Travel Awards are designed to help students defray the costs of attending the AABA meetings. bioanth.org/about/willia... #AABA2025

"Could You Survive Living With Other Hominin Species?" asks PBS Eons. youtu.be/c4E6chPj-IQ?... #humanevolution

Could You Survive Living With Other Hominin Species?

YouTube video by PBS Eons

youtu.be