Lead is often thought of as a modern toxin, but a new study has found that it's been haunting us and our ancestors for almost ...

An international study changes the view that exposure to the toxic metal lead is largely a post-industrial phenomenon. The ...

Natural history is a difficult thing to conceptualize. You’ve got eons of undocumented progress, like the evolution of many species. Take, for example, the Australopithecus, an ancient great ape ...

Since the discovery of the fossil remains of Australopithecus africanus from Taung nearly a century ago, and subsequent discoveries of Paranthropus robustus, there have been disagreements about the ...

Analysis of ancient proteins preserved in fossilized tooth enamel reveals insights into the elusive nature of Paranthropus robustus, researchers report. The findings, which challenge long-held ...

Hungry human ancestors living in southern Africa at least a million years ago had a simple approach to putting more protein and fat in their diet: They used sharpened pieces of bone to tear apart ...

The enamel that forms the outer layer of our teeth might seem like an unlikely place to find clues about evolution. But it tells us more than you’d think about the relationships between our fossil ...

Humans may associate scaling branches with childish behavior — classic monkeying around — but in truth, climbing trees is a big part of our collective story. Ancient bones unearthed in Africa go a ...

Mandibular ramus morphology on a recently discovered specimen of Australopithecus afarensis closely matches that of gorillas. This finding was unexpected given that chimpanzees are the closest living ...