The ancient human species Australopithecus afarensis may have been the earliest hominin to run on two legs. Although it had relatively short, ape-like legs, A. afarensis may have had a long Achilles’ tendon just like modern humans do – a feature that helps us to run more efficiently. Image: Noeluap
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Was it a fight to the death? Little Foot, an ancient hominin who lived in what is now South Africa 3.67 million years ago, may have died in a battle for food with a large male baboon-like monkey after falling down a hole. Image: Karmor
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After a tortuous 20-year-long excavation, a mysterious ancient skeleton is starting to give up its secrets about human evolution. Image: Mac_ZA
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Hominins reached Asia at least 2.1 million years ago, researchers assert in an 11 July Nature paper. Stone tools they found in central China represent the earliest known evidence of humans or their ancient relatives living outside Africa. Image: Prof. Zhaoyu Zhu
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Lucy, the world famous early bipedal hominin, was a swinger. Scans of her skeleton confirm that she had a powerful upper body, thanks to spending a lot of time in trees. The research is being hailed as the final word on Lucy’s lifestyle. Image: Emmjae
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Europe had been home to several species of ape since about 17 million years ago, but by seven million years ago all but one of these apes had vanished. An Italian ape called Oreopithecus was the last species standing from Europe’s golden age of apes. Arguably, it was the strangest of the lot. Image: Ghedoghedo
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It was the first fussy eater. Most ancient hominins ate a broad diet, but one species specialised on sedges, which might have led to its downfall. Image: PriscillaBurcher
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One of our closest long-lost relatives may never have existed. The fossils of Australopithecus sediba, which promised to rewrite the story of human evolution, may actually be the remains of two species jumbled together. Image: Lee Berger
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Our australopith ancestors heard their world differently from modern humans. A combination of ape-like and human-like features in rare middle ear bones from two southern African hominins indicate some australopiths lacked sensitivity to the midrange frequencies that modern humans use for speech. Image: Menage a Moi
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The 2.5-million-year-old Taung Child skull is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. All that’s left of it are a face, jaw and an internal cast of the braincase that formed when sediment replaced its rotting brain. The cast gives us an idea of what the brain of a young Australopithecus africanus looked like. Image: M. Ponce de León and Ch. Zollikofer, University of Zurich
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Where did early humans bed down for the night? Evidence that some chimps routinely eschew the safety of treetops to sleep on the ground raises the possibility that some early hominins did too – and that could have implications for our forerunners’ cognitive development. Image: Martin Pettitt
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