The Story of Real-Life Dire Wolves Is Finally Emerging

Dire wolves menaced Pleistocene landscapes for tens of thousands of years, eventually going extinct at the end of the last ice age. Despite the long success of this species, very little is known about them, including their origins and reasons for their demise. New research is helping to fill these gaps.Read more...
Tags: Science, Genetics, Evolution, Wolves, Paleontology, Dire Wolves, Paleogenetics

14,000-Year-Old Poop Found in Oregon Cave Turns Out to Be Human

For archaeologists, ancient bones and stone tools are important lines of evidence, but sometimes the answers to our past can be found in piles of human poop, as an important new analysis shows.Read more...
Tags: Science, Oregon, Dna, Anthropology, First Peoples, Peopling Of The Americas, Coprolites, Paleogenetics

Scientists Say New Research Tracing the Origin of Modern Humans to Botswana Is Deeply Flawed

A new paper claiming that modern humans originated in northern Botswana some 200,000 years ago is being criticized by experts, who say the researchers relied on unproven and outdated techniques while also excluding competing lines of evidence. Alarmingly, the paper is also being criticized for its colonial undertones. Read more...
Tags: Science, Genetics, Anthropology, Junk Science, Botswana, Human Evolution, Human Origins, Archaeogenetics, Paleogenetics