From the heart of Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, HERI researchers Marang Keebine and @drpeechiwara.bsky.social are helping uncover new evidence of early human behaviour in the #Kalahari. Every discovery adds another piece to our shared human story.

Only 4% of lead authors in the Journal Human Evolution are from Africa & South America - despite #Africa’s central role in the human fossil record. 🤝 Read why we think stronger collaboration and shared leadership can help rebalance this: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

Our HERI Co-Director, @pickeringrobyn.bsky.social, and HERI's @drpeechiwara.bsky.social presented two HERI talks at this week's #ASAPA conference on the Taung Podcast and HERI's All-Women Fieldwork Camp. It was great to hear that these conversations were so well received and considered much needed.

Our #HERIspotlight shines brightly on @Dr Wendy Black. A founding member of HERI, Wendy helped shape our direction and impact. As she turns to a new role at @Iziko, we celebrate her contributions and say THANK YOU! Read more: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content/herispotlight-wendy-black

5 HERI researchers are heading to the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists Conference this weekend! Explore the full programme here - with sessions from our @drpeechiwara.bsky.social and @bschov.bsky.social, among others. 👉 asapa2026.co.za/documents/AS... #ASAPA2026

🚨First-ever protein study of Homo Naledi teeth led by HERI’s Dr @palaeoprotpalesa.bsky.social finds zero male markers in 23 samples - suggesting all individuals analysed were female. A major step forward in studying sex differences in extinct species. 🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026... Sent with my Daily Maverick App (app.dailymaverick.co.za) @johnhawks.net @leerberger.bsky.social @heriuct.bsky.social

Fossils from #Africa 🌍 Dr Charles Musiba explores the 3.6 million-year-old Laetoli footprints in a Lunch Break Science talk by the @leakeyfoundation.org Listen here as he unpacks who made them & what they reveal about early human movement and behaviour. ▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=df7x...

Ever wondered why humans have chins? 🤔 New research by HERI’s Lauren Schroeder suggests chins aren’t a direct adaptation. They are linked to other changes like brain growth and a flatter face. In short, chins may be a byproduct of how our faces evolved. 🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

Research by HERI’s @drpeechiwara.bsky.social uses ICP-MS & XRF to trace ancient tools from Tswalu to their geological sources, revealing new insights into early human raw material selection. 🔗https://www.heriuct.co.za/news-content/how-icp-ms-and-xrf-methods-help-us-understand-early-human-behaviour

Podcasting can bring #humanevolution research into public conversation - where more voices can be heard. Our podcast on the #TaungChild explores how the Taung fossil reshaped ideas about human origins in #Africa. 🎧 Listen to all 4 episodes FREE: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

🌍 Artifacts from Africa Ostrich eggshell beads are among the most enduring forms of personal ornamentation in southern Africa - small artifacts that reveal ancient traditions and social connections. 🔍 Learn what these beads reveal from HERI's Amy Hatton: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

This is what pan-African collaboration looks like! Our master’s students, Akira Banwari and Keane Wanza, joined the field season in Laetoli, #Tanzania, to gain hands-on experience at sites famous for early hominin footprints, fossils, and stone tools. Read more: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

Our HERI’s Rivoningo Khosa revisits the landscapes around the #TaungChild fossil. Her study shows southern Africa was more dynamic and less dry than previously thought, using new quantitative methods to create richer models of landscape evolution. Read the paper: sajs.co.za/article/view...

A single fossil. A century of debate. Unburied Season 2: The #TaungChild traces how a #SouthAfrican discovery disrupted science and reshaped ideas about human origins. Created by ARC with HERI at UCT. 🎧 All episodes out now: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

We are proud of our HERI PhD student, Georgina Luti, who presented her work today at EGU 2026 🇦🇹. Her research explores aragonite preservation in calcite speleothems and what it reveals about the reliability of dating these cave deposits, using samples from #SouthAfrica’s Cradle of Humankind.

Did you know? 🦴 A dental enamel fragment from the Australopithecus africanus fossil continues to shed light on early human biology—and was part of research that won the @sajournalofscience.bsky.social Outstanding Article Award 2025. Read more: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

🌍Have you seen the HUMANITY exhibition yet? Launched in partnership between HERI and Iziko Museum, it takes visitors on a journey that explores our diversity and how we became who we are today. More info here: bit.ly/4cNAzvI Open days & hours link: bit.ly/4issDRx

🐝Pollen can reveal ecosystem changes over time. Research led by HERI’s Dr. Tsilavo Razafimanantsoa uses modern pollen rain in #Madagascar to shed light on ancient pollen records - so we can better understand the origins of open ecosystems on the island. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Since 2019, HERI has run women-focused field camps for archaeology & geology students. Female-led and hands-on, they provide field skills, mentorship, and safe spaces—building confident, resilient researchers ready to study #Africa’s rich heritage.

How do you explain human evolution to a 12-year-old? A Frontiers for Young Minds article by HERI researchers, including its Co-Director Rebecca Ackermann, explains what a human & a Neanderthal child might look like. It's science made easy for young readers kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....

🌍 Artifacts from Africa These are Early Stone Age Acheulean handaxes, remarkable tools that show the ingenuity and skill of early humans. View them on display at the HUMANITY exhibition at @Iziko Museum, curated by HERI researchers.

Reminder: The GSSA Western Cape Branch Alex du Toit Lecture is coming up. Presented by HERI’s Associate Professor @pickeringrobyn.bsky.social on early humans and hydrology in southern Africa. RSVP by 25 March 2026.

HERI-led research wins the SAJS (sajournalofscience.bsky.social) Outstanding Article Award 2025. Congratulations 🎉 to @palaeoprotpalesa.bsky.social and co-authors for receiving the award for their Australopithecus africanus palaeoproteomics paper. Read more: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

Today it's a desert. 105,000 years ago, it held waterfalls & modern homo sapiens The @dailymaverick.co.za looks at work from an all-women team of HERI researchers who challenged theories of #humanevolution to show our ancestors lived in a water-rich Kalahari www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021...

🎧 Unburied Season 2: The Taung Child The story of a 2-million-year-old fossil that challenged scientific authority, exposed colonial bias, and reshaped human origins. Produced by @ARC with HERI at the @University of Cape Town 🎙️ Listen to all 4 episodes NOW: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

In 2025, 12 ground-breaking publications by women of colour at HERI (UCT) reshaped debates across palaeoanthropology, archaeology, geochronology, and planetary geology, marking a significant change in who is leading palaeoscience research. Learn more: www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

Historic moment! A/Prof @pickeringrobyn.bsky.social, HERI Co-director, will deliver the 2026 Alex du Toit Lecture Series, the first female to do so since 1969. The series honours Alexander du Toit, a South African geology pioneer and early champion of continental drift theory. Dates on the flyer

Last year, HERI contributed to the @SAJS special issue marking 100 years of the #TaungChild. With abstracts in #Setswana, the issue gave multilingual insights into science, colonialism & exclusion. Read more reflections from the SAJS Editor-in-Chief: mailchi.mp/assaf/gknccq...

HERI Co-Directors Rebecca Ackermann and Robyn Pickering invite contributions to the symposium “New Directions in Palaeoanthropological Research in Southern Africa” at IPC7. To submit an abstract, please email the convenors. Details and information on all 29 symposia are available at: www.ipc7.site

🎉 Big congratulations to our HERI MSc student, Marang Keebine, for receiving the Best Student Poster Award at the BIOGRIP 2026 conference (UCT, 28–30 January)! Wishing her continued success in her research journey!

#WomeninScience in #SouthAfrica ⚒️ HERI Master’s student Marang Keebine studies past #climate & environmental change using sediments from an ancient lake in the Karoo. Her work sheds light on how dry landscapes responded to drought and rainfall – and how we can respond today.

Thrilled to share that the 2025 SAJS paper with the highest attention score was led by our @palaeoprotpalesa.bsky.social, with nearly 4,000 abstract views! The study identified 2 Myr-old proteins from Paranthropus robustus, revealing biological sex & genetic variability sajs.co.za/article/view...

Reminder: ASAPA abstract deadline 31 Jan ⏰ We invite abstracts for our session on the Pleistocene record of the Kalahari and interior southern Africa, including comparative studies with other regions of southern Africa or Africa. Submit via the ASAPA portal: asapa2026.co.za/submissions....

Did you know? Early humans in #SouthAfrica were making spears 500,000 years ago. These stone points from the #archaeology site of Kathu Pan 1 have impact damage, hafting marks & shapes perfectly suited for spear use — revealing surprisingly advanced weapon technology.

Imagine surviving in the Kalahari thousands of years ago—one of #Africa’s driest environments. Evidence shows that early humans didn’t just endure it; they adapted with remarkable skill. 🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content/surviving-the-drylands-stone-tools-as-evidence-of-early-social-networks

New work by HERI's @drpeechiwara.bsky.social & colleagues reviews Middle Stone Age evidence in #Africa to explore how early humans built complex social networks Looking at context & patterns, the paper sheds light on the deep roots of human cooperation & collaboration. doi.org/10.17159/saj...

Women in science in #Africa 🌍 Christina Mutinda, a HERI PhD candidate at @UCT_news, explores how early humans adapted to changing environments. Using fossils, isotopes and ecological clues, she reconstructs East Africa’s Early Pleistocene habitats, when Paranthropus boisei roamed.

HERI’s Dr Rieneke Weij has led a rare update of U-Th & U-Pb dating in palaeoscience. Published with our Dr Tara Edwards, the review highlights advances & potential for carbonate geochronology — and the implications for #humanevolution research. www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

105,000 years ago, Homo sapiens left their mark at Gamohana Hill North Rockshelter in the Kalahari. They crafted points from galaxy tuff, a 2.4-billion-year-old glass-like stone. Not just a rock, but evidence of skill, planning, and ingenuity. 📖 Read more at www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

HERI’s Drs @drpeechiwara.bsky.social & Ben Schoville are organising a session at ASAPA 2026 on Pleistocene adaptations in the Kalahari and other interior drylands of southern Africa. Researchers working in these regions are invited to submit abstracts and join the discussion. asapa2026.co.za

New publication alert!‼️ Wrapping up 2025 with my fifth paper of the year in the SAJS! The paper reviews how stone tools reveal social connections, noting similar patterns can also arise independently and suggesting ways to better distinguish the two. 💫 🔗 doi.org/10.17159/saj...

Why is #TaungChild one of the most important fossils in the world? Find out in our new podcast, which tells the story of how one fossil challenged colonial narratives & scientific authority to show human origins lie in #Africa Listen to all episodes now🔊 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

ASAPA 2026 Call for Abstracts is open! Ben Schoville and I are organising a session on Pleistocene adaptations in the Kalahari and other interior drylands of southern Africa. Working in these landscapes? We’d love your contribution. Submit here: asapa2026.co.za Deadline: 31 Jan 2026

Ancient tooth proteins reveal the biological sex and genetic diversity of Paranthropus robustus. Led by Dr. Palesa Madupe of the University of Copenhagen and UCT’s HERI, this study provides the oldest human genetic data from Africa. 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Flowstones from the Cradle of Humankind in #SouthAfrica reveal no evidence of intrusion. New work, led by HERI’s Georgina Luti, counters arguments that the flowstones are uniform & intrusive, adding support for their role in dating fossils. 🔗 www.heriuct.co.za/news-content...

🦴 The #TaungChild fossil changed how we understand human origins in #Africa. Its story is shaped by prejudice, rivalry and hidden hands. 🎧 Unburied Season 2: The Taung Child from HERI and ARC explores its history and legacy. Listen here 👉 linktr.ee/arcdocs

Science is stronger when every voice is heard. At HERI, diversity drives discovery, challenges assumptions, and creates richer stories of our shared human story.

Applications are open for the 2025 Student Development Workshop (SDW) at Skukuza, Kruger National Park! 🌿🦓 A great opportunity for students in archaeology & heritage management. 📅 6–10 Dec 2025 See details on SAASS social media & website: www.saassarchaeology.com/upcoming-eve...

Africa’s caves are timekeepers of climate and life. 🌍 An all-women research team, led by HERI’s Georgina Luti, has revealed how rock layers called speleothems record shifts in Africa’s past and help us date fossils more reliably. #WomenInScience & rooted in Africa.