We’re hiring a Research Assistant🚨 Interested in human evolution and African prehistory? We’re looking for someone with excellent organisational skills who will be based in Cambridge, with fieldwork opportunities in Kenya🇰🇪 Deadline: 01.07.2026 🔗 Apply online:
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

If you enjoyed reading the blog last week about the ENTANGLED project’s fieldwork in Mozambique, you’ll enjoy reading this new blog from the Ng’ipalajem team about their fieldwork in Kenya @palaeotrails.bsky.social Read their blog here: www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/muddlin... 📸 Sarah Paris

New paper by @sarah-paris.bsky.social 🚨 "The transformation of ochre from a loose pigment used widely in early burials to rare pellet deposits in later interments mirrors broader processes of cultural change, technological development and ideological realignment in Southeast Asia."

New paper by Dr Jesse Martin challenges the name! 🚨 "We find that the morphology preserved by StW 573 (Little Foot) does not support assigning that specimen to Australopithecus prometheus" 🦴 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Congratulations 🥂 to @jjrowan.bsky.social for receiving the #PhilipLeverhulmePrize from @leverhulme.ac.uk 🥳🤩!! So special to have such an amazing #CamBioAnth team in @cam-archaeology.bsky.social - brilliant, interesting, fun and nice. The best colleagues 😍 www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/2025PLP

Thrilled to share that our lovely PI, @martamlahr.bsky.social is now officially Professor Marta Mirazón Lahr FBA. Formally admitted at a ceremony at the British Academy yesterday! Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition and remarkable milestone — here’s to many more!! 🎉

We are hiring a Project Co-ordinator! 🚨 Are you extremely organised with great interpersonal skills? Able to multitask efficiently? Interested in African prehistory? Keen to work with an enthusiastic team? We want to hear from you! Closing date: 17 October, 2025

Like you, I've read so many nice things about Jane Goodall's amazing life and legacy today, but this video of the realease of the chimp called Wounda is beyond words ♥️ If only we could find the will to stop destroying the extraordinary natural world around us... youtu.be/ClOMa_GufsA?...

It's a wrap! #ESHE2025 3 days filled with stimulating discussions in the form of 35 podiums, 33 Pecha Kuchas, 169 posters. Congratulations to the winners of the student prize - Harmony Hill & Gabriele Russo! Massive thank you to the organisers for making it all happen. See you in Burgos next year!

It's a wrap! #ESHE2025 3 days filled with stimulating discussions in the form of 35 podiums, 33 Pecha Kuchas, 169 posters. Congratulations to the winners of the student prize - Harmony Hill & Gabriele Russo! Massive thank you to the organisers for making it all happen. See you in Burgos next year!

Session 9 Podium #ESHE2025 @stephanepeyregne.bsky.social on a new Denisovan genome, J. Kubat uncovers sexing and phylogeny of M. palaeojavanicus, E. Veatch reconsiders fire use and behaviour in H. floresiensis, H. Berghuis on the first subsea H. erectus site in Sundaland

Podium Day 3 #ESHE2025 H. Farrell, R. Sorrentino, C. Ruff, A. Toccacceli, R. Clarke, A. Robles on the architecture of human foot, gait in Dmanisi, dexterous rock climbing in chimps, craniofacial diversity in great apes and so much more!

Poster Session 2 #ESHE2025 83 wonderful posters. 169 in total. Palaeotrails’ Jesse Martin & @martamlahr.bsky.social on detecting microevolutionary trends in fossil hominin populations.

Podium talks Day 2 #ESHE2025 @jingzhang.bsky.social, K. Bretzke, G. Duller, @armandofalcucci.bsky.social, @giuliagallo.bsky.social, @jonathanreeves.bsky.social present exciting research on AI refits for lithics, use of operculum to push the limits of OSL, fire durations in the MP and so much more!

#ESHE2025 posting on Pecha Kuchas is hard 😅😅😅!

First round of podium presentations at #ESHE2025 Olivia Rivero, Alba Mesa, April Nowell, @aurelienmounier.bsky.social, Chris Hunt explore everything from cognitive complexity, aDNA in cave art to the lives of teens in the #Palaeolithic and the amazing discoveries at #Shanidar! Stay tuned!

#ESHE2025 Introduction by @mariesoressi.bsky.social – 14 years of ESHE! 340 participants in Paris 😊! Welcome by MNHN, hosting: info on major cyber-attack in July, and how challenging it was to organise the meeting (thank you Paris team!!), thanking a number of supporting & funding institutions.

Celebrating our wonderful PI @martamlahr.bsky.social for such an incredible achievement 🎉🍾🥂

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

Had such a fun time learning about species identification, phylogeny and palaeoecology with @deadbovids.bsky.social 🤩🤩

Episode 2: Faunal identification with @deadbovids.bsky.social Other than identification, tooth wear pattern can give us exciting insights into faunal diet and palaeoecology.

The joy of sorting LSA lithics from Turkana under the guidance of @robfoley.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram for more www.instagram.com/palaeotrails...

Breaking the barriers! Important new paper by Daniel Green and others discovering 18 million years of proteins of East African mammals! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What does the Ng'ipalajem team do? Ng’ipalajem, meaning Ancestors in Turkana, is an ERC-funded project. Led by @martamlahr.bsky.social, the project investigates how the emergence of Homo sapiens is deeply intertwined with Africa’s long-term environmental and ecological history. #humanevolution

📢 We’re HIRING! Are you experienced in 3D imaging and geometric morphometric analysis? Do you have strong organisational and communication skills? We want to hear from you! Apply below www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51730/ Join our passionate research team exploring Pleistocene African prehistory! 🦴

🚨 Who made the Oldowan? - New paper from Eleanor Williams www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🚨New Paper from Palaeotrails @avantikab.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🎉 Fantastic new book by Jonathan R. Goodman Invisible Rivals: How we evolved to compete in a cooperative world’ forward by Palaeotrails @robfoley.bsky.social

🚨 New research by Palaeotrails' @sarah-paris.bsky.social beautifully connects Neolithic infant burials in Thailand with today’s evolving conversations around perinatal loss. "This isn't just about pigment—it's about belonging." From ancient ochre to Ronaldo's 7th-minute tribute—grief unites. 🕊️

Please join us next week, 8th May 2025, at 13:00 BST, for our final talk of the academic year which will be given by Dr John Rowan, University of Cambridge. More details below 👇 If you would like to attend, please register here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi... We hope to see you there!

🎉 Members of the Palaeotrails team were recently awarded bursaries to attend this years #HumanEvo25 🧬💀 The team were delighted to participate in the dynamic interdisciplinary programme ranging from genetic 👻 🏜️ 🦠 🧫 to evolutionary 🤰👣⚔️🌍 Thank you @eventswcs.bsky.social

👏👏👏👏

A huge congratulations to all the #HumanEvo25 prize winners 👏 🎉 including Palaeotrails’s @avantikab.bsky.social who won a a prize for her poster Tracing Ancient Footsteps using sulphur isotopes 🏆

Mark Stoneking ⚒️🗣️💻🧬🌏 Combining linguistic, archaeological, computer simulations & genetic data to resolve long held questions about the timing and direction of migration and settlement of the Pacific. Exciting results overturn 💻 simulations that suggested voyaging wasn’t possible! ⛵️ #HumanEvo25

@dangliu.bsky.social New genomic research reveals that genetic drift—not selection—likely shaped high risk of metabolic disorder in Polynesians, following ancient admixture and isolation. Unique variants underscore the value of studying diverse populations. #HumanEvo25

Ruthie Golomb looks at Cell-Autonomous Adaptation (CAAs) in Tibetan, Andean & Papuan populations at high altitudes 🏔️ High altitudes are one of the most extreme environments humans live in. Methods combine complementary methods at the cellular and organismal level to identify novel CAAs. #HumanEvo25

Ashley Hammond "'Pregnancy waddle' has anatomical correlates" Humans evolved early weaning, long childhood and post-reproductive care to boost brain growth. Anatomical and dietary shifts in Homo Erectus (~1.7Ma) show earliest adaptations for big babies, early weaning, social learning. #HumanEvo25

@evanirvingpease.bsky.social exploring the evolutionary origins of diseases. MS genetic risk rose among Steppe pastoralists & was brought into Europe by migration ~5kya. These MS-associated immunogenetic variants underwent positive selection, likely driven by pathogenic challenges. #HumanEvo25

Round 2 of the poster pitch talks! 🚨 Including Palaeotrails' @sarah-paris.bsky.social Otto Geissier and Tom Van Parys From reconstructing populations to Ronaldo, come and see the wide range of fascinating research on display! #HumanEvo25

Marta Pla-Diaz Combating the problems of using reference genomes to reconstruct aDNA from highly damaged samples 🧫 MRB strategy enabled reliable genome reconstruction. Identifying new recombination events, positive selection targets & refined dating estimates for T. pallidum evolution. #HumanEvo25

Kirk Lohmueller DominL uses patterns of archaic ancestry to infer degree of dominance. Provides statistical support for the presence of recessive deleterious mutations in the human genome. Up to 15% of the human genome may carry recessive deleterious mutations! 🧬 #HumanEvo25

@judithbeier.bsky.social Judith presents a new method using GLMs to estimate cranial trauma prevalence in N. and H.s. Results overturn long held misconceptions that N. had sig. higher rates of trauma when compared to H.s 💀 Ev. suggests a relationship with age, revealing social diff. #HumanEvo25

How do scientists cope with unexpected technological problems... a fabulous impromptu discussion comparing our understanding of ancient plagues with COVID 🐀🦠 A celebration of the multidisciplinary nature of the #HumanEvo25 programme!

Johannes Krause “Germs are far deadlier than Germans” aDNA reveals Yersinia pestis evolved virulent strains over 1,000 years earlier than thought, with the Black Death likely originating in Central Eurasia. Redefines plague history and offers insights to guide future outbreak response. #HumanEvo25

@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

Nancy Bird New method infers admixture dates per individual, revealing multiple waves of ancient intermixing. Applied to Neanderthal and Neolithic Europe data, it uncovers finer migration patterns previously overlooked by grouping individuals. Compatible with tools like GLOBETROTTER. #HumanEvo25

@romangarba.bsky.social Combining archaeology and nuclear physics! ⚒️🌌 Roman shows how the ‘cosmic clock’ 🕰️ can help us investigate evolutionary timelines. New dating using cosmogenic nuclides places Korolevo, Ukraine 🇺🇦 amongst the earliest hominin occupations in Europe at 1.42mya. #HumanEvo25

@amy.goldberg.bsky.social 'Humans are bound by resources too - until agricultural societies' Amy uses quantitative modelling based on genetic and archaeological data to prove that agriculture spurred growth in S. America associated with sedentism. Not just a European-specific event! #HumanEvo25

Alison Barton Prelim. ev. for natural selection in aDNA time-series data from C. & E. Asia over 10k years. Metabolic & immune loci are under selection in W. Eurasia, some hits are shared between cohorts reflecting common pressures of pathogens, agriculture, unique environ. factors. #HumanEvo25

Cesar Fortes-Lima Fascinating talk exploring the demographic history of Sub-Saharan Africa's Bantu populations using genetic data from 14 countries. Generated datasets are vital to investigating the trans-Atlantic slave trade. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #HumanEvo25