Annual log contents – click on year to download PDF
2000 Coastal migration; mtDNA and Y-DNA; modern human ancestry; Cro-Magnon migration; Sasquatch buttock print.
2001 “Out-of-Africa” hypothesis; “Multi-regional” hypothesis; human genome SNPs; Orrorin; human family tree; migration; Eugene Dubois; influence of impacts, African climate history; Châtelperronian culture; Neanderthals; teeth, length of childhood.
2002 Review of human evolution; Homo erectus; Homo ergaster; phyllogeography ; “Out-of-Africa” hypothesis; origin of tools; Dmanisi, Georgia; Sahelanthropus tchadensis; Orrorin tugenensis; evolutionary predestination (teleology).
2003 Lake Mungo human; start of ancient DNA studies; genetic legacy of Genghis; human gut bacteria (microbiome); Neanderthal footprints; distorted hominin fossils; chimpanzee genome; early date for Sterkfontein hominins; migrations and modern languages; earliest anatomically modern human (AMH); excarnation; ‘Big Man’ hypothesis; Dmanisi Homo erectus.
2004 Calibration of 14C dating; jaw muscles and brain growth; hominin teeth; early Chinese hominins, stone tools; Neanderthal child development; Institute for Creation Research spoofed; early use of fire in Levant; human cannibalism; ‘Granny Factor’ hypothesis; Homo floresiensis; human lice; genealogy perils; Neanderthal extinction; endurance running in humans; rock art.
2005 Human lice and interbreeding; Homo floresiensis; earliest AMH; Homo erectus evidence for altruism; migration waves; Bab el Mandab; climate change and human evolution; DNA ‘founder’ mutations; evolutionary bottle necks; culture and human evolution; earliest migration to northern Europe; vegetation changes.
2006 Bush-like hominin evolution, cladogenesis; Ardepithecus ramidus; Australopithecus anamensis; Australopithecus afarensis; ancient dentistry; Homo erectus tool making; hominin-chimpanzee common ancestor; Homo floresiensis; migration, return to Africa; Australopithecus afarensis child; African climate change and human evolution; Asian migration; 14C dating calibration; Neanderthal genome pending; australopithecine’s diet.
2007 Helicobacter pylori and AMH migration; AMH-Neanderthal hybrid fossils; upright posture; early gorilla fossil teeth; human morphometry and evolutionary bottlenecks; Homo floresiensis; early art; migration summary; Neanderthal range; Dmanisi humans.
2008 Neanderthal pigmentation; rate of human evolution; primate last common ancestor; humans in the Americas; Clovis First hypothesis; Orrorin tugenensis gait; earliest colonisation of Europe; paranthropoid diet; Doggerland; earliest evidence for use of fire.
2009 Migration and culture in Africa; hominin chile development; ‘Granny effect’; bifacial axe and culture; Levallois technique; body painting; dating Chinese Homo erectus; Homo ergaster footprints; modern African’s genetics; controversially old Mexican footprints; Homo floresiensis; fire and tool making; Neanderthal mtDNA; Ardipithecus ramidus roundup.
2010 Early AMH migrations; Toba ash; Neanderthal body ornaments; Neanderthal genome; human-Neanderthal hybridisation, human functional genes with Neanderthal origins; Denisovan genome; Australopithecus sediba; Australopithecus afarensis sexual dimorphism; earliest migration to northern Europe; hominin coastal refuges; earliest stone tool use.
2011 Neanderthal infant fossil; AMH in China; terrain and human evolution; Bab el Mandab; Palaeolithic stone tools in UAE; migration across Straits of Gibraltar; Neanderthal diet, gait and culture; dental plaque analysis; South Indian Acheulean tools; AMH-Denisovan interbreeding; Clovis First hypothesis; australopithecine and paranthropoid sexual dispersion patterns; Arctic Neanderthals; carbon isotopes and hominin diets/ecosystems; 1.76 Ma age for earliest Acheulean tools; Australopithecus sediba roundup; AMH-archaic human hybridisation in Africa; inherited immune systems, ancient Australian DNA; Blombos cave cosmetics; water sources for human migration; precise dating of European AMH migrants.
2012 Peculiar AMH fossils from Younger Dryas times of China; early hominin fossil feet; earliest use of fire; archaic humans of Atapuerca, Spain; Geissenclösterle; Aurignacian archaeology; Chatelperronian tool industry, cave art; hominin diets; Neanderthal self-medication; surviving 39 ka Campi Flegrei eruption; Homo habilis; human lice; revised human mutation rate; molecular clock; microlith composite tools; Toba ash, calibrating late Pleistocene.
2013 Hominin review; Oreopithecus bambolii; human ‘nature’; hybridisation review; Australopithecus sediba; Toba ash, 74 ka global winter; Homo erectus, throwing ability; European Miocene faunal exchange; common paternal and maternal human ancestors; Y- and mtDNA; migration routes; Dmanisi skulls; early human evolution; first Americans, dual ancestry; 400 ka human mtDNA; Denisovans.
2014 Neanderthal genomes; inbreeding; hybridisation; 1.0 to 0.78 Ma archaic human footprints in Britain; Homo antecessor; timing of Neanderthal extinction; Châtelperronian, Mousterian stone tools; early, multiple AMH migration from Africa; Arabian wet episodes and human migration; early figurative art in Indonesia; Homo floresiensis; Homo erectus art; ‘domestication’ of humans.
2015 Hominin hand bones, precision grip; AMH and Neanderthal co-occupation of Levant; Arabian wet episodes; 2.8 to 2.75 Ma Homo; 3.3 Ma stone tools; 3 co-existing hominins in Afar; Homo naledi; possible deliberate burial; 400 ka mtDNA from archaic Spanish human – early Neanderthal; timing of Neanderthal-Denisovan split; earliest AMH to reach China; 4.5 ka migration back to Africa.
2016 Neanderthal review; inheritance of Neanderthal functional genes by modern humans; Neanderthal-Denisovan hybridisation; Homo floresiensis 60 ka minimum age; Neanderthal circular cavern structures; climatic conditions and early hominin evolution; ‘Lucy’ killed by fall, refinement of Out of Africa; estimated global arrival times of AMH; human population densities 60 ka ago; Châtelperronian culture and Neanderthals; tree climbing by australopithecines; loss of human penis bone (baculum) through monogamy.
2017 DNA in dental plaque (calculus); diet, disease, medication in Neanderthals and sharing their oral bacteria with AMH; possible Chinese fossil Denisovans; early colonisation of North America; Beringia; Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA found in cave sediments, pre-AMH visits to North America; . Homo naledi dated at only ~280 ka; origin of AMH ~315 ka; earliest occupation of Australia at 65 ka; pre-Toba AMH in Sumatra; bipedal animal footprints in 5.7 Ma Cretan sediments; Neanderthal child development similar to AMH; genetic archaeology roundup; early human dispersal through Asia.
2018 Modern humans first leave Africa; earliest human in Americas; Neanderthal art; Toba eruption; cultural revolution in Kenya; Neanderthals on TV; early hominins on Philippines; human-induced mass extinction; earliest humans in China; Neanderthal-Denisovan hybrid; modern human evolution in Africa; Homo floresiensis update; early art in Africa; earliest human in Tibet.
2019 Early stone tools in Africa; sediments of Denisova Cave; ‘Hobbits’ in the Philippines; Denisovan remains in Tibet; Neanderthal demographics and extinction; multiple invention of early stone tools; ancient-human proteins; earliest Homo sapiens to leave Africa; mole-rat feasts during Ethiopian glaciation; Denisovan symbolic art; Australopithecus anamensis; Neanderthal footprints; possible early hominins from Europe; human migrations in Africa; anatomically modern human replacement of Neanderthals; human genetics from fossilised chewing gum.
2020 Latest Homo erectus.. Neanderthal genes in living Africans. Genetic ‘ghosts’ in ancient Eurasians. Earliest modern humans in Europe, Bulgaria. Homo antecessor, northern Spain, protein analysis. Impact affecting Mesolithic people in Syria during Younger Dryas. Earliest Americans, pre-Clovis, 33 ka. Meat in early hominin diet, calcium isotopes, Turkana Basin Kenya. Early Americans’ footprints. Denisovan art, Tibet. Early modern Asian, Neanderthal and Denisovan genes in DNA. Evidence of aesthetic sense in Australopithecus africanus, Makapansgat Pebble. Doggerland, Storegga tsunami, NW European Mesolithic people. Neanderthals’ similarities with modern humans.
2021 Origin of opposable thumbs, H. naledi. Neanderthal brain. Geomagnetic reversal, increased cosmic-ray and solar wind bombardment, possible link to Neanderthal demise. Early human collection of oddities. Modern human and Neanderthals relationships in Europe. Wider traces of Denisovans in Asia and Australasia. Early hominin relations revised after new radiometric dating. Earliest signs of upright gait, Sahelanthropus. Earliest Americans. Possible Denisovan ‘art’. Revision of early human species connections. Cometary air bust over South America between 16.3 to 12.1 ka. Developments in H. naledi research.
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