Research led by the Department of Anthropology and School of Biomedical Sciences, Kent State University, Ohio, has investigated neuropeptide Y innervation in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens of various primate ...
Previous research has revealed that the Apolipoprotein-ε4 (APOE-ε4) allele increases the risk for a variety of diseases in aging populations, specifically Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease. Yet despite its negative ...
Aug 9, 2023
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Perhaps the most profound advance in primate evolution occurred about 6 million years ago when our ancestors started walking on two legs. The gradual shift to bipedal locomotion is thought to have made primates more adaptable ...
Jul 20, 2023
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The Dental Anthropology Group at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has published a paper on sexual dimorphism in the journal Anthropological Science, examining the differences between ...
Jun 28, 2023
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In Europe, epidemics of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) used to be a seasonal phenomenon associated with migratory waterfowl that were returning to their overwintering sites in the autumn. Since 2020, however, this ...
May 12, 2023
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The rapid evolution and emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, such as the omicron variant, renders it highly capable of evading the host immunity.
Mar 22, 2023
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Whether we're night owls or morning larks, our body clocks are set by the sun. Theoretically, changing day length and light exposure over the course of the year could affect the duration and quality of our sleep. But figuring ...
Feb 17, 2023
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It was a good year for medical research as Swedish scientist Svante Paabo won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries he made regarding human evolution—he spearheaded the development of new techniques that will allow ...
Infectious diseases are some of the strongest selective pressures in human evolution, selecting for genetic variants that increase resistance to infection. In the face of a pandemic, resistance to the disease undergoes strong ...
Dec 8, 2022
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In most places across the United States, Daylight Saving Time weekend is the time to shuffle around the house, fiddling with microwave and alarm clock displays. Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, ...
Nov 7, 2022
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Human evolution, or anthropogenesis, is the part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species from other hominins, great apes and placental mammals. It is the subject of a broad scientific inquiry that seeks to understand and describe how this change occurred. The study of human evolution encompasses many scientific disciplines, most notably physical anthropology, primatology, archaeology, linguistics and genetics.
The term "human", in the context of human evolution, refers to the genus Homo, but studies of human evolution usually include other hominins, such as the Australopithecines. The Homo genus diverged from the Australopithecines about 2 million years ago in Africa. Scientists have estimated that humans branched off from their common ancestor with chimpanzees—the only other living homininis—about 5–7 million years ago. Several species of Homo evolved that are now extinct. These include Homo erectus, which inhabited Asia, and Homo neanderthalensis, which inhabited Europe.
Archaic Homo sapiens evolved between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago. The dominant view among scientists is the recent African origin of modern humans (RAO) that H. sapiens evolved in Africa and spread across the globe, replacing populations of H. erectus and H. neanderthalensis. Scientists supporting the alternative hypothesis on the multiregional evolution (ME) view modern humans as having evolved as a single, widespread population from existing Homo species, particularly H. erectus. The fossil evidence is insufficient to resolve this vigorous debate,. Studies of haplogroups in Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA have largely supported a recent African origin, while some researchers argue that evidence from nuclear genes supports a multiregional origin.
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