The first article from the Cambridge Prisms: Extinction special issue on 'Hominin Cultural and Biological Extinctions', guest edited by @jjrowan.bsky.social and Dr Alastair Key, has just been published.  A continuous record of early human stone tool production: doi.org/10.1017/ext....

KNM-ER 64061, most complete Homo habilis skeleton yet (Koobi Fora) shows primitive limb proportions: long forearms, thick cortices, small body mass & ~160 cm stature. Upper limbs like early Homo, but proportions differ from H. erectus Grine et al anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🚨CALL FOR PAPERS!🚨 @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social and I are running a session (S17) at PanAf2026 in Mozambique, titled: Pan-African Homo sapiens evolution: linking processes with data. More info: panaf2026moz.com/panaf-sessio... & submit an abstract: panaf2026moz.com/paper-submis... deadline March 15th

A great start to 2026! My paper with Alastair Key is out #openaccess in Cambridge Prisms Extinction. We examine temporal continuity in the African ESA - no significant gaps, no evidence for loss of tool making abilities c.3.3-1.5 Ma. @cam-archaeology.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

My colleague Ryan McRae and I wrote our annual round up of top discoveries in human evolution from this year for the @plos.org Sci Comm blog - enjoy! scicomm.plos.org/2025/12/19/t...

“What archaeology asks of everyone is an openness to alternate worlds. An understanding that your society, with its ways of working, worshipping, learning, loving—even knowing a dog—is just one permutation of endless human and beyond human possibilities.” www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...

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."

Paranthropus boisei is a human fossil cousin w/ giant jaws and teeth that lived in East Africa ~2.6 to 1.3 million years ago. Whether it could make & use tools has been a paleoanthropological mystery since the 1960s. Our new paper describes the first firmly associated hand and foot. 1/

Great time visiting Lucy and Selam in Prague this weekend! Amazing to see the original fossils, well worth the trip

Last week I matriculated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to start my NERC-funded (CREATES DLA) PhD in Archaeology! @caiuscollege.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk @cam-archaeology.bsky.social

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

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

When in Rome... #Colosseum

Pastoralism remains central to survival in the Turkana of northwest Kenya, where heat and water scarcity pose constant challenges. New research uncovers the genetic signatures that underlie adaptation to arid living in this pastoralist community. Learn more this week: https://scim.ag/4nxcJbx

Happy to share the first paper from my PhD! Open access in a special issue of JAS, 'The Mind in Deep Time: Interdisciplinary explorations of cognitive evolution' When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill share.google/hj43OR6QWXtc...

Very much enjoyed working on this paper. An important site for #Palaeolithic archaeology in the UK. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Last sunrise in Turkana before heading back to Nairobi. What an incredible few months it's been! #kenya #fieldwork @palaeotrails.bsky.social

📣 PUBLISHED OPEN ACCESS 📣 In a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Cambridge researchers explore the role of skill for Lower Palaeolithic handaxe manufacture through flint knapping experiments. 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.ja... 🧵

Such good news! Really pleased for you @martamlahr.bsky.social! 🎉

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

3D scanning these beauties with Ng'ipalajem! @palaeotrails.bsky.social #handaxe #turkana

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...