Female Chimps with Powerful Moms Are Less Likely to Leave Home
Chimps are unusual among mammals in that daughters, not sons, typically pick up their roots at puberty and move away from their families. But in Gombe National Park, some chimpanzee females stay put instead of moving out.
A Tiny Bone from Little Foot’s Skeleton Adds Fresh Insights into What Our Ancestors Could Do
New research on an Australopithecus fossil called "Little Foot" helps us better understand how these ancient hominins lived. The findings suggest that this specimen could climb and move in trees as well as on the ground.
Smallest Homo erectus cranium in Africa and diverse stone tools found at Gona, Ethiopia
An international research team led by scientists from the U.S. and Spain, supported in part by The Leakey Foundation, has discovered a nearly complete cranium of an early human ancestor, estimated to about 1.5 million years ago, and a partial cranium dated to about 1.26 million years ago, from the Gona study area in Ethiopia’s Afar State.
First Ancient DNA from West Africa Illuminates the Deep Human Past
A team of international researchers, with support from The Leakey Foundation, dug deep to find some of the oldest African DNA on record, in a new study published in Nature.
Monkeys Smashing Nuts Hint at How Human Tool Use Evolved
Human beings used to be defined as “the tool-maker” species. But the uniqueness of this description was challenged in the 1960s when Dr. Jane Goodall discovered that chimpanzees will pick and modify grass stems to use to collect termites. Her observations called into question homo sapiens‘ very place in the world. Since then scientists’ knowledge of animal tool use has expanded exponentially.