A collection of unusually old stone tools found in Algeria is challenging our ideas about early human evolution. The find suggests one of two scenarios: either the first humans expanded rapidly from their small East African homeland, or humans emerged simultaneously across a vast region of Africa. Image: M. Sahnouni
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Humans arrived on the Tibetan Plateau tens of thousands of years earlier than we thought. This raises the possibility that the first humans to cope with the harsh conditions there were not modern humans, but the ancient Denisovans. Image: John Olsen
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Many archaeologists assume that there was a big shift in what people in the Fertile Crescent ate when they became farmers 12,000 years ago. But the idea has never been rigorously tested. Image: Alfred Grupstra
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A haul of ancient stone tools has plugged a big gap in China’s archaeological record, challenging our understanding of how our species spread around the world. Image: James St. John
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Neanderthals are often depicted as graduates of the Stone Age school of hard knocks: Without sophisticated weapons, they had to face down violent prey such as woolly rhinos at close range. But a new study reveals our closest human relatives were no more likely than Stone Age members of our species to sustain head injuries. Image: Gleiver Prieto & Katerina Harvati
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