Open Version: https://archive.is/20261021165551/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-03360-0

Archaeologists identified skulls from China as belonging to this group of ancient human relatives.

A low, sloping forehead, a massive brow ridge that curves backwards, rectangle-like eye sockets, flat cheeks, and a moderately elevated bridge of the nose. Taken together, these features are the hallmarks of the ancient humans called the Denisovans, say researchers who studied a trove of fossilized skulls, teeth and jaws found in northern China.

“We are finally starting to put a face to the Denisovan,” says Sally Wasef, a palaeogeneticist at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

Denisovans were first described in 2010, after researchers sequenced genetic material from a mysterious finger bone discovered in a cave in Siberia and found that it did not resemble that of Homo sapiens or Neanderthals.

Ancient proteins have since been used to identify remains from other parts of Asia as Denisovan, including the first near-complete Denisovan skull found near Harbin, which helped put a face on the ancient humans.

Researchers report in Nature1 today that they have an even better idea of what Denisovans looked like after analysing the physical features of remains that belong to a collection of 20 fossils found in Xujiayao.

The Xujiayao remains are at least 130,000 years old and were found in the 1970s, alongside animal remains and tools. At the time, it was unclear what type of human these fossils belonged to, and they were classified as a species called Homo juluensis.

By analysing ancient proteins from some of the fossils, Qiaomei Fu, a geneticist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, and her team identified the remains as Denisovan.

Wasef says ancient protein analysis is a valuable tool to complement DNA studies, particularly because proteins can survive longer than can DNA without fully degrading. Although DNA provides more detailed information about an individual, protein analysis can still yield useful information about who an individual is related to.

Fabrice Demeter, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, says the findings add to growing evidence that Denisovans were a widespread and potentially diverse group of humans.

“The study represents a major step forward” in our understanding of what these humans could have looked like and where they lived.

Six hand bones from Abauntz Cave in northern Spain are the first Neanderthal remains ever identified in the region of Navarre. They belonged to an adult male who lived about 46,000 years ago, and they still contain ancient DNA.

The presentation of six fossils from Abauntz Cave, in Arraitz-Orkin (in the Ultzama valley). Together they make up part of a Neanderthal hand. The fossils were unveiled at the Casa del Concejo, the village council house of Arraitz, at an event led by Navarre’s regional president, María Chivite.

The project’s two co-directors were there as well: Dr. Andion Arteaga, a researcher at the University of Warsaw’s Centre of New Technologies who is also associated with IPHES-CERCA, a Catalan institute devoted to human evolution, and Dr. Mikel Arlegi, a postdoctoral researcher at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris.

According to the institute’s press release, the bones were recovered a couple of excavation seasons ago, and a new season is under way now.

The Terracotta Army near Xi'an, China, is a breathtaking sight: thousands of life-size terracotta figures created in the third century B.C. to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang. They were discovered in 1974, and people have assumed they were built exclusively by men. But new research on this underground army and its chariots, horses and weapons suggests women and children lent a helping hand.

The Levantine hominin fossil and archaeological records have played a central role in long-standing palaeoanthropological debates over origin models and possible interbreeding between Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and Homo sapiens.

Recent research has provided a strong framework for the morphological expectations of recent hybrid ancestry in primates, along with renewed suggestions that early Late Pleistocene hominins from the Levant show morphological evidence of hybridization.

Here the research address these developments by using established diagnostic features of H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis to review possible fossil evidence of hybridization from the key Levantine sites of Qafzeh, Skhūl, and Tabūn.

The researchers conclude that, while individuals from these sites show a perplexing combination of characteristics that broadly overlap with expectations of hybridization, this explanation can only be established once other alternatives have been ruled out, or through the recovery of genetic material from these key fossils.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Neanderthal whose life came to a brutal end 75,000 years ago when a sharpened wooden spear plunged into the individual’s chest in one of the earliest known examples of a possible homicide.

A neat, circular hole in the hominin’s shoulder blade suggested the weapon penetrated the chest, traveling through the lung and major arteries before punching the hole in the bone. It likely killed the Neanderthal instantly or shortly after, according to a study in the journal Scientific Reports published on Thursday.

But the archaeologists who excavated the new skeletal fragments from Shanidar Cave in Iraq say the fossils weave a complex tale of Neanderthal life and death, beyond what appeared to be deliberate violence.

Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, a US law which set up protections for historical, cultural, and sacred sites. A special section of this act, Section 106, requires developers to work with archaeologists prior to certain construction projects (especially when federal lands, funds, or agencies are involved).

But now, a proposed law stands to change everything. Embedded in the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act is language which would take archaeologists out of this process, remove all opportunities for public comment, and allow development to continue even if historical/cultural/sacred sites are encountered.

If you're in the US, please consider calling your congresspeople before November 9th and ask them to protect US archaeology by opposing the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. Learn more at https://www.106strong.com/

This new Nature paper uncovers the genetic changes that shaped human's skeleton and uncovers a major clue to why it is so vulnerable to degeneration.

Skeletal modifications were central to human evolution, enabling adaptations for bipedalism, large cranial vaults and childbirth. Despite their importance, the genetic changes that gave rise to the unique human form remain mostly unknown.

Here this paper dives systematically map the gene-regulatory changes that shaped human skeletal evolution. Using massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) in chondrocytes, the scientists have assayed 561,410 human-derived substitutions in promoters and enhancers, identifying 15,077 loci with human-specific regulatory activity.

The scientist generated human–ape hybrid cells and differentiated them into osteochondral progenitors. Integrating the hybrid cells with MPRA measurements produced genome-wide atlases of human-specific changes in cis-regulatory expression, and the sequence variants that drive them.

These atlases reveal an extensive rewiring of the extracellular matrix (ECM), including a marked suppression of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) biosynthesis, leading to an approximately three-to-fourfold reduction in joint GAG content in humans compared with non-human apes.

The Scientists have found that this human-specific shift bears signatures of selection, and is likely to be a key contributor to the exceptional susceptibility of humans to degenerative skeletal diseases.

Together, these results reveal a coordinated evolutionary re-modelling of the human skeletal ECM, and establish a comprehensive framework for dissecting the genetic basis of human skeletal biology.

Only a small patch of faded pigment survives, preserving part of a hand against an Indonesian cave wall. Mineral deposits covering that stencil show it was already there at least 67,800 years ago, giving it the oldest reported minimum-age constraint for cave art worldwide.

The archaeological study, published in Nature, examined paintings in southeastern Sulawesi and its satellite islands. An international team co-led by Griffith University, Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, known as BRIN, and Southern Cross University investigated the images.

The oldest stencil comes from Liang Metanduno, a limestone cave on Muna Island. It adds evidence for an exceptionally long history of image-making in the region. The researchers also argue that its age strengthens the case for early human journeys toward Australia through northern Wallacea.

Understanding infant corpse carrying behaviour in primates could provide clues to how humans perceive death

Among the fascinating behaviours observed in chimpanzees and bonobos, infant corpse carrying is one of the more unusual ones. But mothers will sometimes carry their infants for days, weeks and even months.

One chimpanzee in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania, was recorded carrying her deceased infant for perhaps as long as 126 days.

Now a study, published in the journal Biology Letters, has explored why this behaviour might vary among primate mothers.

Researchers from the University of Oxford, UK, analysed 83 recorded cases of the behaviour spread across 15 distinct western chimpanzee, eastern chimpanzee and bonobo communities.

“Historically, much of what we know about animals reacting to deceased group members has come from isolated, mostly anecdotal observations rather than structured, cross-site research,” say the study’s authors, Thomas A. Püschel and Reece Hammond.

“So, shedding some light on the drivers of this fascinating behaviour in chimps and bonobos was genuinely very exciting!”

The researchers note that “infant corpse carrying is best explained by maternal attachment and the infant’s cause of death”.

Older infants were carried for longer, with the researchers suggesting that the behaviour may arise as a leftover of prolonged and intensive care – this doesn’t simply ‘switch off’ overnight.

Mothers carried infants for significantly longer following disease-related deaths in comparison to infanticide.

No other cause of death category (such as accidental, injury or premature) showed significant association with the duration of the behaviour.

The scientists note that male primates may kill infants and if mothers continue to carry these infants, they may be exposed to more aggression. Using this interpretation, carrying after disease-related deaths carries less social risk for the mother within the troop.

Clay tablets preserve kisses between ancient deities, while living apes offer clues to a much deeper history. New research has expanded the question from when people first recorded kissing to how the behavior might have evolved.

A 2025 historical review identifies romantic kissing in Sumerian manuscripts dated to approximately 2600–2500 BCE. Separately, a comparative study suggests mouth-to-mouth kissing may have existed in the ancestors of large apes 21.5–16.9 million years ago.

The two findings measure different things. One concerns surviving written evidence. The other reconstructs ancestral behavior statistically, using a broader definition than human romantic kissing.

Neanderthals may have used a sticky substance made from tree bark not only to construct tools but also to treat wounds and fight bacterial infections.

Scientists have discovered that birch tar, a material commonly associated with prehistoric toolmaking, has antibacterial properties that could have made it useful as an ancient form of medicine.

The findings come from a study conducted by researchers at the University of Cologne, the University of Oxford, the University of Liège, and Cape Breton University in Canada.

By recreating techniques believed to have been used by Neanderthals, the team produced birch tar and tested its ability to inhibit harmful bacteria.

Their results suggest that this prehistoric adhesive may have served a second, previously overlooked purpose: helping protect wounds from infection.

The research was published in PLOS One under the title "Antibacterial properties of experimentally produced birch tar and its medicinal affordances in the Pleistocene."