Where there’s fire there’s often smoke – which might have been bad news for Neanderthals and other ancient hominins. Modern humans carry a genetic mutation that reduces our sensitivity to cancer-causing chemicals found in wood smoke. But Neanderthals and Denisovans apparently lacked the mutation. Image: jmw120
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What is a vast grassland doing in the middle of the world’s largest rainforest? Conservationists say that fires started by the indigenous people have destroyed the forests. Others argue that the savannah has existed for millennia and that the fires conserve this natural landscape. Both could be wrong. Image: Duda Arraes
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You could call it the original baptism of fire: the moment hominins first began controlling flames. There is now evidence that moment came at least 1 million years ago, a finding that will reignite the debate over whether human anatomy was changed forever by cooking. Image: M. Chazan
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