Why is AAR (Amino Acid Racemisation; by implication #palaeoproteomics) so often overlooked for #geochronology? New paper by @neaarlab.bsky.social, using Bithynia snails 🐌 to date the last 1Ma: 4 new reference sets for climate & Quaternary Science 🌍 open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/5-396

Achelense Melka Wakena 5, Etiopía ~1,36 Ma: planificación para adquisición materia prima y control de propiedades morfométricas. The emergence of large flake-based Acheulian technology: perspective from the highland site-complex of Melka Wakena, Ethiopia link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Interesting stuff!

Human Evolution Research Institute at University of Cape Town@heriuct.bsky.social · 8mo ago

105,000 years ago, Homo sapiens left their mark at Gamohana Hill North Rockshelter in the Kalahari. They crafted points from galaxy tuff, a 2.4-billion-year-old glass-like stone. Not just a rock, but evidence of skill, planning, and ingenuity. 📖 Read more at www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A journey into the sensory world of ancient Arabia: incense, ritual, trade, memory & scent 🌿🔥🏺🧪 www.dainst.org/en/newsroom/...

🌿 “What the Invisible Dream — Cosmoperceptions of the Forest” Art from residencies in the Amazon, Marajó, Atlantic Forest, Sápmi & Rio Negro/Munich exploring forests, waters & cycles. 📅 Nov 10, 7PM 📍 Galeria Benedito Nunes, Belém (PA) 🆓 Free entry More info: www.goethe.de/ins/br/pt/st... 

[new paper alert!!]. Taking another look at the traditional Out of Africa I model… 😎😎 @courtneymanthey.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The new issue of PaleoAnthropology is now online! 📢 It includes the Special Issue 'What’s in a Name? Late Middle and Early Late Pleistocene Hominin Systematics' The cover features the article 'Revisiting the Anatomy of the Florisbad Hominin Cranium' by Balzeau et al. #humanevolution #openaccess

PaleoAnthropology Journal@paleoanthjourn.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The latest issue of PaleoAnthropology is out now! Volume 2025, Issue 2 #openaccess 📖Read Here: paleoanthropology.org/ojs/index.ph... #paleoanthropology #humanevolution

COMING SOON! We’re delighted to share that our executive report, bringing together experts on regenerative agriculture and resilient food systems will be released soon.

We hosted ‘The Voices of the Global South on the Anthropocene’ Conference in June 2024 at the Max-Planck-Institute of Geoanthropoloy Jena, Germany. You can read more about this event, and the important discussions we engaged in, both below and at the link in our bio!

Our aim is to bring together diverse voices and perspectives, incorporating palaeoecology, archaeology and traditional knowledge, to address pressing challenges relating to climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

'Java Man,’ the first Homo erectus discovered, is finally going home

Excavated with colonial labor and shipped to the Netherlands, the famous fossil is being repatriated to Indonesia along with 28,000 other fossils.

nationalgeographic.com

High-quality Denisovan genome, reconstructed from a molar found at Denisova Cave. Belonged to a man who lived ~200 Kya A high-coverage genome from a 200,000-year-old Denisovan 🏺🧪 S. Peyregne, @benceviola.bsky.social, @elenaessel.bsky.social, @janetk.bsky.social et al www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Paper alert 🎓🌿 I’m excited to share a new publication from my PhD On-site plant-wax biomarkers + compound-specific isotopes show why relying on bulk δ13C of SOM can mislead in the tropics. Case study: Jwalapuram (S. India). Read: www.cell.com/iscience/ful... Huge thanks to all co-authors 🙏

On-site plant-wax biomarker analysis for assessing soil-organic-microbial degradation in archaeological contexts: A case study from Southern India

Archeology; Biochemistry; Ecological biochemistry; Paleobiochemistry

cell.com

Bob Patalano@robertpatalano.bsky.social · 10mo ago

🚨New paper alert, check it out in @cp-iscience.bsky.social! Led by @gopesh.bsky.social, we looked at plant wax biomarkers from archaeological contexts with a focus on the Palaeolithic Jwalapuram site. We show that it is important to integrate source-specific proxies with bulk soil proxies. 🏺🧪

As I wrap up my doctoral research, I find I have even more questions than when I began—and the picture keeps getting more complex. Here’s a mint-fresh Levallois point core from the Baghor Coarse Member (~40–50 ka) in the Middle Son Valley (north-central India). #HumanOrigins #Palaeolithic #India

#newpreprint: "Climate Shaped the Global Population Structure of Leopards and their Extinction in Europe": www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...! Leopards are charming big cats but there are many mysteries around them. Thread 🧵

A lot more is coming about the technological transitions, Toba's impact, and climatic context. Hats off to @ekerdoncuff.bsky.social @priyamoorjani et al.'s outstanding work. Do read the original paper - doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... P.S. A lot to wrap up in so little time, but looking fwd. to 2026.

John Hawks@johnhawks.net · 10mo ago

The genetics of South Asia are coming into focus, helping reveal how fast the avalanche of modern humans got going. This region has more Neanderthal genetic variation than any other, and a unique component of Denisovan ancestry never seen before. www.johnhawks.net/p/deep-histo...

The genetics of South Asia are coming into focus, helping reveal how fast the avalanche of modern humans got going. This region has more Neanderthal genetic variation than any other, and a unique component of Denisovan ancestry never seen before. www.johnhawks.net/p/deep-histo...

Deep history from the genomes of India

People carrying Neanderthal mixture entered the subcontinent after 50,000 years ago, meeting Denisovans

johnhawks.net

Very sad. One of the world's great human beings. #JaneGoodall www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Jane Goodall, primatologist and friend to chimpanzees, dies at 91

She used her global fame to draw attention to the plight of dwindling chimpanzee populations and, more broadly, to the perils of environmental destruction.

washingtonpost.com

So excited to announce the lineup of speakers here @heasvienna.bsky.social for the 2025/6 academic year! We have some outstanding speakers for our three seminar series in Archaelogical Science, Ancient Genomics and Human Evolution & the Palaeolithic. All hybrid! Register now at HEAS.at

Note that @isotopes.bsky.social (with other methods) found that lakes lost hypolimnetic oxygen in three more (far-away) sectors of Greenland around the same time. Oxygen depletion was apparently widespread, in response to a few degrees of summer warming. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Aquatic plant wax hydrogen and carbon isotopes in Greenland lakes record shifts in methane cycling during past Holocene warming

δ2H values of aquatic plant wax reveal past Holocene warming led to expanded CH4 cycling in lakes across Greenland.

science.org

One more conceptual layer of the Bretskyan hierarchy: how organisms map on their range and environments or what is the geometry of their movement (as exemplified by dogs and cats). 🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Macroecology www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Had some fun with this one! Based on a publication by @mariaguagnin.bsky.social and our terrific team! 🐪 m.youtube.com/shorts/7Pcec...

12,000-year-old road signs

YouTube video by Griffith University

m.youtube.com

After two days of reading, thinking, and reading again, I think there are two possible ways to interpret the Yunxian cranium (note that @johnhawks.net and others have already shared some great, and often overlapping ideas): (1/4) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The phylogenetic position of the Yunxian cranium elucidates the origin of Homo longi and the Denisovans

Diverse forms of Homo coexisted during the Middle Pleistocene. Whether these fossil humans represent different species or clades is debated. The ~1-million-year-old Yunxian 2 fossil from China is impo...

science.org

youtube.com/watch?v=MA1c...

Our common Neanderthal ancestor could be a million years old, says Chris Stringer

YouTube video by New Scientist

youtube.com

This non #FlintFriday and #FieldworkFriday, I would like to share this mint-fresh Quartzite handaxe from SE India, likely dating back to Middle Pleistocene. Yes, it hurts to see that broken tip! Still, one of my best find. I am field-sick, can't wait to go back. #Acheulean #India #HumanOrigins

‼️📣Extremely proud to see this great collaborative work out! Oldest Shell Ornament Workshop in Western Europe at Saint-Césaire: www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1... #Prehistory #Archaeology #Chatelperronian #Shells #Beads #Homosapiens #Neandertal #Ornament Details of discovery & implications ⏬ 🧵 1/20

Thanks to @isbarchaeology.bsky.social and @isba11.bsky.social for a great conference. I mentioned the legacy of Henk Kars of VU who established ISBA Geoarchaeology closed. Here is the link to the petition to save Earth Sciences @vuamsterdam.bsky.social www.change.org/p/red-aardwe...

What a week! 🎉 Big thanks to @isba11.bsky.social for hosting an incredible ISBA conference — so well organized and full of great science.

Interested in #Maya history, #climate change, #stalagmites and #drought, and the #SYP autosampler? Read the latest in our detailed work on a sample from #Tzabnah cave! 😎 kudos to all our collaborators in #Mexico! @andy-baker.bsky.social @mwclimatesci.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Classic Maya response to multiyear seasonal droughts in Northwest Yucatán, Mexico

Stalagmite record reveals 1- to 13-year droughts in NW Yucatán from 871 to 1021 CE, a time of profound Maya cultural change.

science.org

Job Alerts!🚨 We are looking to fill three Independent Junior Research Group Leader positions in the 'HUMAN ORIGINS' Cluster of Excellence at the University of Tübingen Application deadline: Sept. 10, Starting Jan. 1, 2026 1. Genotype-Phenotype interactions: uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...