Something beautiful for the weekend! An extraordinary Acheulean handaxe knapped around a fossil shell c. 500,000-300,000 years ago! From West Tofts, Norfolk 📷 MAA Cambridge University collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/4509... #Archaeology

Food for thought r.e. Homo naledi....the much repeated 'Floresiensis shows you don't need a big brain to do fancy stuff' continues to erode.

🐘 check out our newest paper from Liang Bua! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Did H. floresiensis hunt Stegodon? 🔪 Did they also had control use of fire? 🔥 We tested these early claims of complex behavior using taphonomy, experimental archaeology, and zooarchaeology of the Stegodon assemblage.

My thoughts on the paper about 'Hobbit' capabilities

Seems like the “Hobbit” is even weirder than we once thought. 🏺🧪

Were the hobbits of Flores clever hunters, or were they merely scavenging dragon leftovers? My latest for Nat Geo covers fascinating new work from @egveatch.bsky.social and the team at Liang Bua: www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti... 🧪🏺

#OnThisDay in 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's theory of evolution through natural selection was read aloud at a meeting of the Linnean Society. It was the first time the idea was ever presented to an audience.

A few words from archaeologist Jamie Hodgkins on the latest H. naledi paper, which is cool and impressive overall (congrats to the proteomics team on this) but risks being overshadowed by claims from some team members that are a reach. 1/2

So happy and proud to see this paper out in @natcomms.nature.com today! We show that traces of human DNA can persist on cave walls for thousands of years. Absolutely fantastic work by the wonderful Alba Bossoms Mesa at @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social and a great team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some of the last surviving Neanderthals were remarkably diverse ‪—‬ suggesting inbreeding didn't doom them www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

🏺🧪 Important new study on late #Neanderthals, helping us refine variation in their populations, & situation on a few millennia before they vanish. Tskehomes from rapid look: - unlike in Eastern range, these aren't living in v isolated communities - still no detectable late Sapiens ➡️ N interbreeding!

🏺 🧪 Thoughts on new Naledi info: - if results are correct it doesn't mean all individuals there are female, just sampled teeth - if there is strong female bias it's interesting but cultural burial is not the first thing I'd be thinking about - nobody comments on weirdness when 💀 samples are all ♂️

This has got to be the weirdest human evolution story I've ever covered. I'm still baffled -- yes, baffled -- by these results. 🏺🧪

Today is my last day at Scientific American, which has been sold to LabX media group. For three decades I've led the magazine's coverage of human origins, archaeology, paleontology, animal behavior, ecology, BIRDS. End of an era. Anyway this feels weird to say, but I'm now available for assignments!

Heard rumors about this project long ago, and glad to see it coming out. Focusing on the science over reconstructing past environments, @pbseons.bsky.social has a full-length TV documentary series coming out: www.popsci.com/science/pbs-...

So, some news: www.popsci.com/science/pbs-... We made a tv show! 🎉 #scicomm #paleontology

Three great museum educator jobs at my favorite museum! 😁 “… one for each of the following halls: (1) David H. Koch Hall of Fossils – Deep Time; (2) Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals; and (3) Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals.” trustcareers.si.edu/postings/1b8...

Nice New Scientist piece by Michael Marshall discussing my research www.newscientist.com/article/2529...

NEW When #Neanderthal remains were discovered in Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan, the fragile and crushed condition of the bones prevented detailed analysis. A year of conservation work helps explore the complex mortuary practices observed at the site. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

When Homo floresiensis was found in 2003, very few hominin skeletons were complete enough to measure arm-to-leg proportions. Lucy and Turkana Boy were really the only solid ones. Everything else was broken and fragmentary, making the hobbit's strange proportions hard to understand. 🧪🏺

Neanderthal skeleton in our display case for #FossilFriday

Yesterday in 1855, Darwin wrote to his best friend, "If I really have as bad an expression as this photograph gives me, how I can have one single friend is surprising." (I will never stop laughing at this). 🧪

A reminder that the stubborn "march of progress" image is misleading in about one hundred ways, the biggest of which is that it was never meant to be six figures at all. It was a foldout of fifteen, drawn in a 1965 book as the "road to Homo sapiens." Nine were hidden behind the fold. 🧪

I'm going to be talking on Neanderthal structures and Middle Palaeolithic monuments in York, June 6th, as part of a day celebrating Prof Spikins and the adaptive success of these remarkable Ice Age peoples. 🏺🦣 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/europa-202...

Just had a lovely conversation with illustrator Benoît Clarys, looking forward to working together on a project, such a big fan of his work. 🎨

“It feels like being the world's biggest party-pooper, but you can’t go out there & say you created a direwolf when you haven’t. That you genuinely believe you recreated an extinct species based on 20 gene edits.” @toriherridge.bsky.social debunks the de-extinction grift, with @rowhoop.bsky.social.🧪

Today in 1868, Darwin wrote to a friend, "It drives me mad & I know it does you too, that one has no time for reading anything beyond what must be read: my room is encumbered with unread books." 📚🧪

Neanderthals Lounged on the Beach Slurping Shellfish nautil.us/neanderthals... 🦑🧪🌎

Not today, Colossal.

Colossal continues to woo journalists with promise of access. Controversy, if mentioned, is often watered down and pushed to later portions of articles. I have not met a single ecologist, paleontologist, or other researcher who endorses what Colossal's doing, but journalists keep giving them good PR

Calling all paleoanthropologists! I'm back freelancing and looking for stories to pitch. New paper dropping? Cool find you want the world to know about? Reach out! 🧪🏺✍️

Lungs aren't just older than feet...they are waaaaaay older than feet. Lungs are older than trees.

Was just reminded of one of my favorite journal quotes, from Brochu & Sumrall 2020.

We’re excited to announce that the first 2026 issue of PaleoAnthropology is now online! A big thank you to everyone who made this issue possible. 📖 Read it here: paleoanthropology.org/ojs/index.ph... #PaleoAnthropology #HumanEvolution #Archaeology #OpenAccess

The gigantic ground sloth Megatherium at MACN in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The size of this herbivore is difficult to appreciate from the photo. A human would only stand near hip height (on the platform) next to this Ice Age megamammal! #FossilFriday

🏺🧪🦣 I'm at about 18 minutes in, giving a few thoughts and some context to this new find 🦷 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Darwin began writing a "sketch" of his big idea #OnThisDay in 1856. It would later form the base of his book, On the Origin of Species.

Today in 1861, Darwin wrote to a friend, "I have no news to tell you, for I have had no interesting letters for some time & have not seen a soul."

Middle Pleistocene hominin interactions like

interesting study! though sadly after the root canal the neandertal's dental insurance rejected the claim and they had to pay the whole thing out of pocket

Scientists have identified ancient proteins from Homo erectus, marking the first time genetic info has been extracted from the species. But the results raise the question -- Do we even know what Homo erectus is? 🧪🏺

Proteins recovered from 400,000-year-old fossils show humans living today may have inherited genes from Homo erectus: "There’s far greater complexity in terms of hominins across Eurasia than previously recognized," says @york.ac.uk geochemist Kirsty Penkman. @science.org

📣 Lecture announcement 📣 The next lecture in our series ASHE meets HUMAN ORIGINS is already this Friday! Meet our new Independent Junior Research Group Leader Dr. Jaap Saers, and learn about his work. Attendance is open for everyone, via Zoom: lnkd.in/dU58FCvr, Passcode: 386251.

The concept of extinction was regarded as impossible until the late 18th century. Join Professor Sadiah Qureshi on 28 May as she explores extinction's unnatural history and how we can generate hope and secure justice for all life on earth. https://bit.ly/4tL3JmR

This is an incredible project, I'm so glad it's being undertaken! leakeyfoundation.org/learn/oral-h...

"On that first-ever visit by Broom to Sterkfontein Caves, he asked quarry manager Barlow, who had previously worked at Taung, if he had ever found anything like the Taung child skull. Barlow replied that he thought he had and promised to keep a look out." 🧪🏺

This is so cool youtu.be/OdO_g1S_MBU?...