First evidence of ancient human occupation found in giant lava tube cave in Saudi Arabia
Researchers report first evidence of ancient human occupation of giant lava tube caves in the Arabian Peninsula.
New methods of conservation needed to prevent the extinction of great apes
Great apes, human’s closest living relatives, are knocking on the door of extinction. Traditional methods of conservation have helped, but these methods are no longer enough, say multiple-time Leakey Foundation grantees John Mitani and Andrew Marshall, researchers at the University of Michigan.
The extinction of the giant ape: A long-standing mystery solved
Giant creatures are usually associated with dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, or mystical beasts. But if you go back through the human lineage you’ll find a very distant relative that stood three metres tall and weighed around 250 kilograms. This was Gigantopithecus blacki, the mightiest of all the primates and one of the biggest unresolved mysteries in paleontology.
Songs to make the forest happy
Music is universal in all human cultures, but why? New Leakey Foundation-supported research explores the evolutionary function of music and singing. The study focuses on women from the Mbendjele BaYaka, a hunter-gatherer community in the Republic of the Congo with a strong musical tradition. This research offers intriguing insights into how music fosters social bonding and communication.
Wild chimpanzees experience menopause
Researchers studying the Ngogo community of wild chimpanzees in western Uganda’s Kibale National Park for two decades has published a report in Science showing that females in this population can experience menopause and postreproductive survival.