The #ESHE2025 meeting in Paris starts tomorrow (please use this hashtag for sharing). If you are interested in the program, you find it here mcusercontent.com/9347aa3598d5... - Members have received an email for accessing the live stream! We hope you all enjoy the conference in person or online. /MW

You've heard of the human "cognitive revolution" around 40 kya—a moment when our species suddenly became "behaviorally modern." Have you also heard that this story is wrong? From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...

1) I am delighted to present this terrific tour de force research conducted by my post-doc Dr. Gayani Senevirathne @gayani.bsky.social and published today in Nature - www.nature.com/articles/s41...

'we find that, based on current evidence pertaining to these costs, the case for inferring know-how copying abilities in Oldowan or even Early Acheulean stone toolmakers is weak..this points to a later date for the establishment of this crucial human skill' link.springer.com/article/10.1...

For my German-speaking followers: A 20-minute Podcast episode in which I discuss the results of our recent paper in Nature within the wider context of the global dispersal of our species in the Pleistocene! detektor.fm/wissen/forsc... #archaeology #evolution #podcast #scicom

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...

ZOOGESTURES has a web presence now! 🐒🦥🐻‍❄️ zoogestures.uni-koeln.de with @nakedprimate.bsky.social @mesh-research-hub.bsky.social 🏺🗃️📕

ZEIT Wissen3 stellt heute die Initiative PD Prekär vor. Mehr dazu gab es vor kurzem im Wiarda-Blog. Sehr erhellendes Gespräch u.a. zu den Absurditäten der Titulaturlehre als Grundbedingung dafür, den Titel ‚Privatdozent*in‘ behalten zu dürfen. www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/07....

Where do the Dmanisi hominins fit on the human evolutionary tree? dx.doi.org/10.1101/2025...

And it's a wrap! After 7 weeks of fieldwork filled with discoveries and new encounters, the team has returned to Bordeaux. See you soon at SAfA 2025 in Portugal!

"Der Traum verliert an Anziehungskraft" DHV-Präsident Lambert Koch über Wissenschaftlerkarrieren, Tenure Track, die Rolle der Habilitation – und warum verbindliche Befristungsquoten an Hochschulen für ihn keine Lösung sind, sondern neue Probleme schaffen könnten. www.jmwiarda.de/blog/2025/07...

www.sidestone.com/books/contes... Perhaps this PhD of mine will finally become a book reality after all 😱 🏺🗃️📕

Jetzt online: Der neue DFG-Jahresbericht. Er bildet statistische Kennzahlen zum #Förderhandeln 2024 ab, inkl. Rückschau auf die vorherigen 4 Jahre. 1/2 Zum Download 📑https://www.dfg.de/resource/blob/359464/69bb27de4890eef0491daeb3d05f9522/dfg-jb2024-data.pdf

"Do Recent DNA Studies Refute a 65 kya Arrival of Humans in Sahul?" See comment by @elliescerri.bsky.social and myself here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

In 2025, #ESHE elections for regular board members will be held again! If you are interested in standing for a board member, please send a short biography and a photograph to [email protected] no later than 20 July 2025!

Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal 🏺🧪 Emily Y. Hallett, @manuelwill.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al www.nature.com/articles/s41... Found that this expansion was driven by humans increasing their use of diverse habitat types, from forests to arid deserts.

An amazing study by brilliant colleagues and dear friends. Give it a read!

🧪By our colleague @wbanks33.bsky.social in @nature.com H. sapiens expanded their ecological niches within Africa, occupied a broade range of habitats before their exit into Eurasia 60 ka. Adaptation as a path to long migration shorturl.at/Mfus8 @cnrsecologie.bsky.social @univbordeaux.bsky.social

1/5 Why do all non-Africans descended from a group that left Africa 50k ago? In @nature.com we model 120k years of human niche dynamics. From 70ka, a big expansion of the human niche in Africa likely equipped later OOA dispersals with a unique ecological flexibilty. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

About 70,000 years ago, a new study suggests, our species learned to live just about anywhere. Later, that ability helped our ancestors expand from Africa across the world. Here’s my story on the human niche [Gift link] nyti.ms/3ZBc7ID

after 6 years, finally out in @nature.com! ‪Huge expansion of the human #niche in Africa ~70kya likely equipped later #outofAfrica dispersals with unique ecological flexibility co-led with Emily Hallett @eegcam.bsky.social & @elliescerri.bsky.social #prehistory #humanevolution #paleoecology #SDM

Here is a thread detailing the main findings of the paper by the key people driving this study!

Published today in @nature.com our new study on the drivers of the successful dispersal of modern humans out of Africa! A huge, interdisciplinary team effort long in the making, headed by @elliescerri.bsky.social . Glad to have contributed! www.nature.com/articles/s41... #archaeology #Evolution

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... A good way, I hope, to introduce myself!

Sie ist überall: die Rede vom #Spitzenforscher. Nur: Was soll das überhaupt sein? Über einen Begriff, der das Gros der Wissenschaftler_innen als zweitklassig degradiert & einem Geniekult zuarbeitet, der der Arbeitsrealität in der Wissenschaft weder angemessen noch zuträglich ist. ⬇️ #ArbeitInDerWiss

New version on supposed naledi engravings is out elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre... . One reviewer notes "The claims relating to artificiality, age and authorship made here seem entangled, premature and speculative [...] there isn't convincing evidence to confirm them." #archaeology #anthropology

🧪 By our colleague F. d’Errico: the evolution of cultural transmission over the past 3.3 million years! Outcome of a 4-year project supported by the GPR Human Past and by I. Collage’s yearly visits as a Visiting Scholar shorturl.at/EEK2S @univbordeaux.bsky.social @cnrsecologie.bsky.social

The first article of our Special Issue (with @matzearch.bsky.social) on "Technological Complexity and Archaeological Interpretation in the Deep Past" is out #OpenAccess by M. Lombard. Check it out here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I really like this preprint. There is a lot to reflect on, which I'll do at greater length. An observation: Multiregional evolution drew upon very similar metapopulation modeling in the 1990s and early 2000s, e.g. work from me, Alan Templeton, and John Relethford. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fascinating latest model of Homo sapiens evolution within Africa. Interesting finding that cultural innovation was accelerated by both population size increases, but also recombination across partially isolated regions (e.g. Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa)

🚨NEW PAPER from the @eegcam.bsky.social!🚨I have never been as proud of something as of the work that finally we can share today: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... - we show how a climatically driven Pan African meta population model explains our species genetic and morphological diversity 🧬💀

Pan-African metapopulation model explains Homo sapiens genetic and morphological evolution🏺🧪 @ceciliapad.bsky.social @manuelwill.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social et al www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Provides a complete reconstruction of the meta-population dynamics over the last 200,000 years

Paleoproteomics and sexing of Paranthropus in South Africa published today in @ScienceMagazine science.org/doi/10.1126/... #archaeology #anthropology

Am Montag wurde der Tübinger Preis für #Wissenschaftskommunikation 2025 offiziell an die beiden Preisträger, den Neurowissenschaftler Prof. Dr. Tobias Hauser und den Archäologen und Historiker Dr. Michael Kienzle, verliehen. Herzlichen Glückwunsch! 👏 uni-tuebingen.de/exzellenzstr... #Wisskomm

Just one day left for abstract submissions for #ESHE2025 in Paris! 🌏Note that remote/virtual presentations are also possible 🌍. www.eshe.eu/abstract/

@hannesrathmann.bsky.social Exploring human migrations & demographic change resulting from environ. change. Applying new Pheno-ABC modelling method to skeletal phenotypes 🦷 Results show significant population migration patterns beginning ~47kya, changing ~28kya and again after ~14kya. #HumanEvo25

Exploring the utility of unretouched lithic flakes as markers of cultural change 🏺🧪 Manuel Will @manuelwill.bsky.social , Hannes Rathmann www.nature.com/articles/s41... Examines the potential of flake morphology for tracing cultural change

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...

My summary of the exciting new excavations by @elliescerri.bsky.social and her colleagues, showing Mesolithic hunter gatherers arrived to Malta by sea

New paper detailing ancient DNA from North Africa during the African Humid Period. Were they the last descendants of North African Late Pleistocene people? The pattern is not dissimilar to the structure and bottlenecks we estimated for the North African MSA, link below www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What happens if you actually pay people for doing important academic work (i.e. peer reviewing)? www.nature.com/articles/d41... #academia #publishing

Two new sites, in the Tajuña River Valley, show evidence of both flint extraction and working, specifically for the production of long blades. New quarries and workshops for long flint blade production in central Iberia (Brihuega, Guadalajara, Spain) 🏺🧪 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Vielen Dank für alle Hinweise! Hier nun mein Kommentar zur Situation der US-Wissenschaft – mit Link zu diesem Post. www.jmwiarda.de/2025/03/24/n...

I have two chapters in this for anybody interested: 1) A head-on critique of the in Palaeolithic archaeology wide-spread notion "intentions do not fossilize" www.researchgate.net/publication/... (drop me a msg if you do not have access and I can send you the pdf)

Our house philosopher/anthropologist Raymond Corbey has been an inspiration to generations of Leiden MA and PhD students through his focus on epistemology. It was great fun to edit a festschrift with wide-ranging contributions on archaeology 🏺, anthropology and philosophy with @shumon.bsky.social

💻Join online! 🎧 Süßmilch Lecture @mpidr.bsky.social Eugenics, demography and academia: an ongoing relationship 🗣️ @rebeccasear.bsky.social, @brunelcce.bsky.social & @ehbea.bsky.social 📅March 25, 2025 🕒3 pm CET ✏️Sign up now: www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even...

Und sie hatten damals auch einen Artikel veröffentlicht, der das Missverhältnis kritisiert: www.nature.com/articles/s41....

Irrsinnige Summen von öffentlichen Mitteln werden investiert, damit Wissenschaftler_innen Expertise auf- & ausbauen können. Und was macht D, wenn diese Leute am Höhepunkt ihrer Expertise angelangt sind? Es wirft sie raus & fängt mit neuen Leuten wieder bei Null an. Teurer ‚Spaß‘! #IchBinHanna

Our latest work from the open-air Stone Age landscape of Jojosi on new absolute ages - this is something for the luminescence nerds! 🤓 gchron.copernicus.org/articles/7/5... #archaelogy #SouthAfrica #geology #luminescence #geography #dating

Hi We contributed towards the South African Journal of Science Taung Centennial! some links; the special issue: issuu.com/sajs/docs/so... our paper: sajs.co.za/article/view... and I got featured on where I work from Nature Africa if you are interested in that: www.nature.com/articles/d44...