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human evolution

Life

Early break-up of eastern African forests shaped our ape ancestors

Forests in eastern Africa started turning into grassland 10 million years earlier than previously thought, which may have driven the evolution of upright apes

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Artistic rendering of Morotopithecus

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Bone fragment reveals humans wore leather clothes 39,000 years ago

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Canyars_LeatherPunchBoard

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The archaeologists recreating the secrets of prehistoric technology

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HHXJTH Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
Tightly-curled hair appears to maximise the shielding effect from the sun while minimising an unwanted insulating effect

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Curly hair may have evolved to protect early humans from the sun

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Paranthropus, early human relative

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Early hominin Paranthropus may have used sophisticated stone tools

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Light micrograph of a section through the spleen of a patient with Gaucher's disease. Small lymphocytes and large macrophage cells (Gaucher?s cells, pink, a type of white blood cell) are present. Gaucher's disease is an inherited metabolic disorder in which a fatty substance called glucocerebroside accumulates in the spleen (in macrophages), lungs, liver and bone marrow, and sometimes the brain. This is due to an absence of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GC). The disease appears in childhood, and some forms are fatal in the first few years. Other forms cause enlargement of the affected organs, weak and painful bones and anaemia. Some forms also cause severe nervous system damage. There is no cure, but enzyme replacement therapy using GC can relieve the symptoms. Haematoxylin-eosin saffron (HES) stain. Magnification: x400 at 24x36 mm size.

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Genes for Gaucher disease may have protected Jewish people against TB

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Straight-tusked elephant bones hint at routine hunting and butchering by Neanderthals

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Neanderthals hunted enormous elephants that fed 100 people for a month

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2FM22K7 The joy is evident on the face of this young orangutan. BORNEO: THIS BRITISH photographer has spent TWENTY years snapping Borneo?s cutest orangutans.

Life

Living in trees may have given great apes vocal skills for consonants

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A series of hominoid crania (counterclockwise from the L): juvenile Australopithecus, adult Australopithecus, adult chimpanzee, juvenile chimpanzee, adult Homo erectus (center). Specimens photographed at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

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Our ancestors’ prenatal growth sped up after we split from chimps

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Nobel prize awarded for study of human evolution using ancient DNA

Geneticist Svante Pääbo has been awarded a Nobel prize for his work on evolutionary genetics

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Geneticist Svante Pääbo has been awarded a Nobel prize for his work on evolutionary genetics

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Human ancestors may have walked on two legs 7 million years ago

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Losing parts of our voice box may have helped humans evolve to speak

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Shape of human brain has barely changed in past 160,000 years

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Life As Told By a Sapiens to a Neanderthal review: Joyful curiosity

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