The temporal bone is used frequently to identify taxonomic affinities of genus Homo fossils based on external morphological features. In the meantime, the temporal bone pneumatization has rarely been examined, particularly in Asian Homo erectus. We put forward a comparative morphological and quantitative analysis in Asian Homo erectus from the sites of Ngandong, Sambungmacan, and Zhoukoudian, a...

The early Pleistocene colonization of temperate Eurasia by Homo erectus was not only a significant biogeographic event but also a major evolutionary threshold. Dmanisi's rich collection of hominin fossils, revealing a population that was small-brained with both primitive and derived skeletal traits, has been dated to the earliest Upper Matuyama chron (ca. 1.77 Ma). Here we present archaeologica...

The appearance of Oldowan sites ca. 2.6 million years ago (Ma) may reflect one of the most important adaptive shifts in human evolution. Stone artifact manufacture, large mammal butchery, and novel transport and discard behaviors led to the accumulation of the first recognized archaeological debris. The appearance of the Oldowan sites coincides with generally cooler, drier, and more variable cl...

Chemical investigation of the lipophilic fraction of Hyrtios erectus, a Red Sea sponge, yielded a new pentacyclic nitrogen-containing scalarane; 24-methoxypetrosaspongia C (1), together with the previously reported scalaranes sesterstatin 3 (2), 12-deacetyl-12-epi-scalaradial (3) and 12-deacetyl-12,18-di-epi-scalaradial (4). The compounds were identified using HRESIMS, 1D and 2D NMR experiments...

SOMEONE SHOULD INFORM RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin, who is seeking to displace scientists and germ plasm at the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry so federal bureaucrats can move into the space (“Prestigious plant institute in jeopardy,” News of the Week, 31 Jan., p. 641), that 61 years ago, several Vavilov scientists sacrificed their lives in a truly heroic, unprecedented, and ultimately ...

Data from three African field sites on Pan troglodytes demonstrate an unambiguous pattern of a slower growth rate in wild vs. captive chimpanzee populations. A revised dental growth chronology for chimpanzees is similar to estimated timing of Homo erectus and therefore has implications for interpreting life history in hominins.