Netherlands to return 'Java Man' fossils to Indonesia. 🏺 www.dw.com/en/netherlan...

Prague’s oldest Baroque garden, the Vrtba, has stood carved into this hillside since 1720. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, it's situated within a neighborhood first mapped in 1257. Centuries of history 🤯 📍Aria Hotel Prague

A grand place for Lucy to make her European debut. 📍 Národní muzeum

Honestly a little speechless. Looking forward to spending the next few days here. 🏺 📍Narodni Muzeum

#ESHE2025 Elizabeth Veatch ‘Behavioural complexity in Homo floresiensis reconsidered’ Did H floresiensis hunt & use fire? NO! Tapho– Komodo Dragon prey bones fr Atlanta! 3D study of 3200 bones w marks fr Liang Bua: most match Komodo Dragons; a few actual c/m - scavenging. 🔥? ~10K rat bones 😳… NONE

I'm a bit confused as to why dwarfing is still so often assumed. Another leading idea is that the hobbit evolved from a small-bodied ancestor, no shrinking of bodies or brains required. Also, this study unfortunately missed the withdrawal of fire evidence in 2016. theconversation.com/hobbits-of-f...

#ESHE2025 Andrea Lukova ‘Reconstructing loading from the internal bone structure of the Homo naledi foot’ Signature of climbing in the naledi foot? Close look at the talus and 1st MT Human-like features – BUT!! Also climbing traits in talus – suggesting climbing was key element of locomotion!

Most fossils sit quietly in drawers, known only by numbers. From the beginning, AL 288-1 was different. She had a story, she became Lucy. New Substack: paigemadison.substack.com/p/when-we-fi... 🏺

What do you mean it’s already the fall equinox? Summer disappeared in a blur of book revisions.

Buckle up, gang. We're headed back in time. 🏺 paigemadison.substack.com/p/lets-go-se...

(1/2) Posting on behalf of Dr. Jamie Hodgkins, with whom I was on this panel. “The promise of eLife was transparency. Spin still wins. Reviews are public, but truth bends when the communicator chooses to distort. I don’t appreciate being lied about.” youtu.be/9XJd9Nbmy-k

HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, reached the Galápagos Islands #OnThisDay in AD 1835. It was on this voyage where the seeds were sown for his theory of natural selection. Interested in human evolution? Learn more in Antiquity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

Welp. Following a fossil across Europe wasn't exactly in my September plans, but here we are. Lucy's in Prague, so naturally, I'm right behind her. Headed there soon.

🦣 🏺 I do love a cheerful hominin reconstruction

From the archives: looking back on when Lucy was on display in the U.S in 2009. Millions of years collapse when you see an ancestor under glass. She’s so much smaller than you expect. 🏺🧪

Do I need to go see her? 👀

Lucy is currently on display for the first time in Europe. 🏺

The hobbit (Homo floresiensis) was discovered #OnThisDay in 2003. Here she is that day in all her smallness, still embedded in the cave floor of Liang Bua. 📸 Wahyu Saptomo

#paleoanthropology #humanevolution

The fossil on my mind today (and in the book chapter I'm currently revising) from Ileret, Kenya. What an interesting, smalled-brained little one. 🧠🏺 KNM-ER 42700

www.reuters.com/science/arch... 🏺

A genetic flip helped turn us into upright walkers. Here’s my evo-devo story about the ilium. Gift link: nyti.ms/45BOenz

We simply cannot lose Biodiversity Heritage Library. Please consider helping if you can. 🙏

A curse of being a historian of science is that I'm constantly worried about materials being preserved. Every page of field notes, every single correspondence -- I want all of it. Help. #Stressed

Wake up, babe! New hominin species just dropped. (Maybe...)

This is super cool. New paper: "New discoveries of Australopithecus and Homo from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia," phys.org/news/2025-08... 🧪🏺

#OnThisDay in 1936, Robert Broom visited South Africa's Sterkfontein Cave for the first time. He asked the quarry owner if they’d ever found “anything like the Taung skull,” the first Australopithecus. The owner’s reply: yep. 🏺🧪

Library folks & supporters: IMLS is on the chopping block again. Raise some hell. 📚

I wonder who made those Sulawesi stone tools. 👀👀 Was it Homo erectus? A new species? And was it an ancestor or close relative of the hobbits (either Homo erectus or something else)? So fun to think about.

The discovery of ancient stone tools on Sulawesi suggests that this Indonesian island was populated by hominins at around the same time as the nearby island of Flores, if not earlier, according to a paper in Nature. go.nature.com/4oq7zzw 🏺 🧪

Discoverer of many fossil human ancestors and promotor of the science of human origins Louis Leakey was born #OnThisDay in 1903. 🏺🧪 📸 Leakey Foundation

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It's easy to see the string of Indonesian islands west to east as the path to Flores (Sumatra --> Java --> Lombok). But, because of ocean currents, many think Homo floresiensis' ancestors actually came from the north, Sulawesi. Now there's a compelling clue. 📸: theconversation.com/this-stone-t...

Yet another Indonesian island has revealed a very ancient occupation, just to the north of Flores... theconversation.com/this-stone-t... 🧪🏺

#OnThisDay in 1908, the remarkable Neanderthal known as the Old Man from La Chapelle was discovered. 🏺🧪

It seems increasingly unlikely that the species name juluensis has much of a future - apart from Xuchang, most probably belong with Homo longi and Denisovans…https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/homo-juluensis-may-be-part-of-a-new-group-of-ancient-humans

1/ THREAD: It’s with deep regret we share the news that SAPIENS will halt publication of new content by the end of this year. We are so proud of everything SAPIENS has achieved and for our role in furthering public anthropology. Wenner-Gren’s letter to our community. wennergren.org/important-ne...

Copenhagen looks different now, funny how that works. Feels good to be back.

In all seriousness though - Thomas Sutikna is a legend, and it's great to have him telling the story. I was thrilled to be a fly on the wall during this interview. 🎥

Wow, what a fascinating story about the accidental discovery of a new human species! Someone should maybe write a book about this?? 😉 💀 youtu.be/Rctp5-LwsYo?... 🏺🧪

Discovering Homo floresiensis youtu.be/Rctp5-LwsYo

Humans and Neanderthals are more connected than once thought www.thebrighterside.news/discoveries/...

The first known representation of a living Neanderthal appeared in Harper's Weekly today in 1873. #sciart www.lindahall.org/experience/d...

Today in 1864, Thomas Huxley doodled this “ancient ape-man of Gibraltar” while bored in a meeting. It was inspired by the Forbes Quarry skull—a fossil his friend was puzzling over that we’d later recognize as a Neanderthal. #OnThisDay 🏺

Justus Erus Edung was only 25 years old when he discovered Kenyanthropus platyops in a team led by Prof. Meave Leakey in 1999. This 3.5 million year old “flat-faced” skull quickly grabbed international headlines and changed the course of human evolution. #fossils #turkana #humanevolution

Louis Leakey with 'Zinjanthropus' skull+newspaper @NHMLondon in 1959. Found #OTD by Mary Leakey, ‘Zinj’ was assumed to represent the earliest toolmaker at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, until the discovery of Homo habilis. Pic by Anthony Sutcliffe.

The gorgeous fossil known as Zinjanthropus was discovered #OnThisDay in 1959 by Mary Leakey. The big teeth and large chewing muscle attachments of this 1.8 million-year-old relative from Tanzania earned it the nickname Nutcracker Man. 🏺🧪 📸Des Bartlett

Spotted in the first episode of the new BBC Human: a strange little creature found in a hole in the ground. She’ll have more of a role in the second episode, but always pleased to see that face.🏺

Turkana moonrise

A year ago, I finished the first draft of my book, in all its chaotic messiness. Now I'm plugging along on the third draft. 🫠