Some gangs of chimpanzees beat their neighbors to death in bids to expand their turf, according to a new study.
While scientists have long known that chimps will kill each other on occasion, the finding shores up a long-held hypothesis that humans’ closest living relatives sometimes turn to violence to annex valuable parcels of land.
Hundreds of circles, squares, and other geometric shapes once hidden by forest hint at a previously unknown ancient society that flourished in the Amazon, a new study says.
Satellite images of the upper Amazon Basin taken since 1999 have revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks spanning a distance greater than 155 miles (250 kilometers).
Wolves were domesticated no more than 16,300 years ago in southern China, a new genetic analysis suggests—and it’s possible the canines were tamed to be livestock, not pets, the study author speculates.
“In this region, even today, eating dog is a big cultural thing,” noted study co-author Peter Savolainen, a biologist at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.
DNA from scrappy dogs in African villages is raising doubts about a theory that dogs first became “man’s best friend” in East Asia.
Based on DNA evidence, scientists believe that domestic dogs originated from Eurasian gray wolves sometime between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago.
The glittering “grills” of some hip-hop stars aren’t exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says.
Maya and other ancient peoples of southern North America went to “dentists”—among the earliest known—to beautify their chompers with notches, grooves, and semi-precious stones, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Ancient “hobbit” feet contain clues that the diminutive fossil creatures, found on the Indonesian island of Flores, had a very different style of walking than that of modern humans, according to a new analysis.
“In several ways, their feet are what we call in the business ‘primitive,’” said study co-author William Harcourt-Smith, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
The finding, he added, is further evidence that the 18,000-year-old fossils represent a unique species, Homo floresiensis.
Even 15,000 years ago, humans were compelled to decorate the interior walls of their abodes. Back then – the Stone Age – home was often no more than a cave, but the artwork was sophisticated and sublime. Check out eight examples of rock art from around the world.