Exciting new discoveries and theories emerging out of China and Eastern Asia about the course of human evolution

Interested in the kinds of information archaeologists can gain from metabolic profiling? Check out this wonderful new book and our chapter on the ancient oasis of Tayma. This work builds on our 2022 paper on reconstructing ancient scents in Nature Human Behaviour: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ABC Deep Time Australia Launched Today Congratulations to everyone involved in working with the ABC News Story Lab to bring this project to fruition! @ciehf.bsky.social is proud to have closely collaborated on this project. www.abc.net.au/news/deeptime/

This is now published! Great pleasure to work with @stewiestewart.bsky.social, @huwgroucutt.bsky.social, @carlipeters.bsky.social and the rest of the team!

Australia in the Anthropocene: Linking Past, Present and Future. Wonderful project workshop yesterday exploring the diverse methods our students and ECRs are using to examine how Australia's ecosystems have been shaped by people over the long-term and why it matters today.

My comments on the new discovery of hand bones of Paranthropus boisei and its implications for tool use. www.abc.net.au/news/science...

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 🙏

Want to explore these amazing camel images in more detail? Check out a 2022 examination of four of the #RockArt panels in Antiquity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺#Archaeology

Hunter-gatherers may have used engravings to find water in the parched deserts of the Arabian Peninsula 12,000 years ago. https://scim.ag/4nql413

Jane Goodall was a global legend at the forefront of discovery — breaking through barriers for women in primatology, science, and beyond. Her curiosity, strength, and kindness changed the world, bridging countries and cultures in pursuit of a better future.

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

About 12,000 years ago, high up on a cliff in the desert of northern Arabia, an artist – or perhaps artists – was hard at work. @mariaguagnin.bsky.social theconversation.com/12-000-year-...

Some nice news coverage by @science.org of our recent discoveries of 12,000-year-old life-sized camel engravings in rock art of #SaudiArabia. @mariaguagnin.bsky.social www.science.org/content/arti...

New discovery! Here @mariaguagnin.bsky.social and our team report on 12,000-year-old life-size camel rock art engravings in the Saudi desert. #GreenArabia @griffith.edu.au www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some of my initial comments on the most interesting Yunxian 2 study and its implications. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

“Science isn’t really moving towards equity; institutions are just perfecting the appearance of equity.” Actually I’m not even sure they’re doing that, though many are indeed trying. share.google/XNaLs2bBjdMG...

Human footprints provide snapshot of last interglacial ecology in the Arabian interior🏺🧪 Mathew Stewart, @huwgroucutt.bsky.social , @mdpetraglia.bsky.social et al www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Evidence indicates a well-watered semi-arid grassland setting during human movements into Nefud Desert.

Homo erectus technological behaviors during the Middle Pleistocene Transition: Engaji Nanyori, Oldupai Gorge 🏺🧪 link.springer.com/article/10.1... Arturo Cueva-Temprana, @nicoleboivin.bsky.social, @mdpetraglia.bsky.social, et al Recent excavations of Acheulean occupational sequence dated 1.1–0.9 Ma.

Paper alert! Led by my PhD student Arturo Cueva-Temprana on Engaji Nanyori (Oldupai Gorge). This study offers rare insight into Acheulean technology during the Middle Pleistocene Transition (1.1–0.9 Ma). Striking technological uniformity by early ancestors. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

10th World Archaeology Congress has wrapped up. Here's us who presented in the session 'Microarchaeology—Using Micro-analytical Techniques to Elucidate the Deep Environmental Past and the Evolution of Our Species'. Our session and the whole of the conference was largely successful

Did you know that WAC-10 World Archaeology Congress (next week) is free for students to attend online? Register here: worldarchaeologicalcongress.com/wac10/

A great line up for our session on the dangers of practicing archaeology "while female" at WAC-10 in Darwin! Note that students can attend virtually for FREE! Runs 22-28 June. For more information and to sign up: worldarchaeologicalcongress.com/wac10/

New paper out! Not sure why it comes associated with this photo from Africa but the markers are still useful for anyone applying ZooMS in Australia!! 😊

Our latest paper is out now in Frontiers in Mammal Science: www.frontiersin.org/journals/mam... We characterized ZooMS peptide markers for three extinct Australian megafauna species 🦴🧪

Paper alert! Happy to have joined Huan et al. to examine miniaturised lithic diversity across the last 20,000 years in southern China and its potential relation to geographic and climatic variability. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Shattered careers. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Quite the provocative title, but why not a crossroad for way longer than we currently realise. www.haaretz.com/archaeology/...

My God this is catastrophic for science. WTF do Trump & his minions know about science, they’re literally killing it. Even if stopped now it will take years to get back up Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

The goal is to kill scientific funding, stop every approved dollar from going on the door, and then claim it is savings, and hope the House GOP will cut the budget to enable a regressive tax cut.

🔔BREAKING🔔 The NSF has frozen all research grant awards—cutting off life-saving science midstream and demanding ideological screenings for future funding. This is censorship disguised as oversight. Here’s how you can help us spread the word ➡️🧵(1/3): www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🧪This is interesting! Bonobos, a species of endangered apes, only found in the Dem Rep of Congo, live in female dominated societies. This paper supports the thought that females form coalitions to sustain their matriarchies. This affirms 30 yrs of research. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Paper Alert! 📢 I am delighted to share my first research paper from my PhD! 🎉 "Seasonally resolved stratigraphy at Jwalapuram India shows regional surface warming after the Toba volcanic super-eruption" Final version just came online, Read the full paper here: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Our research led by @gopesh.bsky.social fails to show Toba volcanic winter drama on the ground. www.newscientist.com/article/2477...

Here we are in the #GreenGobi

Our discoveries at Jwalapuram have been rather remarkable and of great importance to the natural and cultural #heritage of #India and the world illustrating the effects of the Toba volcanic super-eruption on ecosystems and humans. Please save this site Archaeological Survey of India! #ASI

Can't wait to see the #GreenGobi 💚

Green Arabia: Could It Have Been the First Home for Early Human Ancestors?

Nature research paper: Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years https://go.nature.com/4jja0k2

1/ "The Rub’ al-Khali (Empty Quarter) is the largest “sand sea” in the world, but it was once filled with something quite different: water. And lots of it." www.aol.com/scientists-f...

More evidence that the supposedly ‘unique’ capacity of Homo sapiens to adapt to a diverse array of environments is not so unique after all. Other members of our lineage clearly possessed this behavioral plasticity, including the mysterious Denisovans.

(1/13) A thread on our new paper just published in Nature, ‘Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years’. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In @nature.com we report the presence of the Mesolithic on Malta - upending everything we knew about the seafaring capabilities of late European hunter-gatherers and pushing back Maltese prehistory by 1000 years. Watch the clip, link to open access paper is below. 1/5 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A @nature.com News and Views article on our new work in Arabia. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Our study in the news. "A new study reconstructing the Arabian Peninsula’s ancient past adds clues to how early humans left the African continent." www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

Paper alert, @nature.com. Our study reveals 8 million years of #GreenArabia. We document environmental variability - ranging over the entire course of human evolution. Arabia is a key bridge at the cross-roads of continents. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

April 9th, a big #Anthropology #Announcement out of #SaudiArabia! "What did the Kingdom’s landscape look like millions of years ago? In a press conference, the hashtag#SaudiHeritageCommission unveils remarkable evidence of its transformation through the ages."

It's the Toba volcanic super-eruption revival. Well done @gopesh.bsky.social and colleagues! Our results underline the complex responses of regional environments to the Toba super-eruption, which extend beyond a simple widespread ‘volcanic winter’. #India #Toba academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ad...

Though a desert today, ancient Arabia had lakes and rivers due to high rainfall. Geological evidence even points to a mass flooding event which carved out a 150km-long valley. cosmosmagazine.com/earth/earth-...

Abdallah Zak and colleagues demonstrate the existence of ancient lakes, rivers, and a massive water-formed valley beneath Arabia’s vast desert. #GreenArabia dailygalaxy.com/2025/04/disc...

The desert that we see today in Arabia was once a region that repeatedly underwent 'green' periods in the past, as a result of periods of high rainfall, resulting in the formation of lakes and rivers around 9,000 years ago. www.miragenews.com/unearthing-l...