Hacker News with Generative AI: Human Evolution

Williams Syndrome: The people who are too friendly (bbc.com)
People with Williams Syndrome treat strangers as their new best friends. Now the condition is giving clues to our evolutionary past – and what makes us human.

Genetics, Psychology, Social Behavior, Human Evolution

10 points by neom 43 days ago | 0 comments

A structured coalescent model reveals deep ancestral structure shared by humans (nature.com)
Understanding the history of admixture events and population size changes leading to modern humans is central to human evolutionary genetics.

Genetics, Ancestry, Human Evolution, Population Genetics

6 points by georgecmu 54 days ago | 0 comments

Fragment of a human face aged over one million years discovered (sciencedaily.com)
The discovery of a human facial fragment aged over one million years represents the oldest known face in western Europe and confirms the region was inhabited by two species of human during the early Pleistocene, finds a new study involving a UCL researcher.

Paleontology, Archaeology, Human Evolution, Europe

66 points by docmechanic 96 days ago | 48 comments

Modern humans descended from at least 2 ancestral populations (cam.ac.uk)
Modern humans descended from not one, but at least 2 ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe.

Human Evolution, Genetics, Anthropology, Archaeology

6 points by geox 98 days ago | 0 comments

1.4M-year-old skull found in Spain earliest human face of Western Europe (msn.com)

Archaeology, Paleontology, Europe, Human Evolution, Spain

5 points by pseudolus 107 days ago | 1 comments

Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange (phys.org)
A new discovery at Tinshemet Cave in central Israel is reshaping our understanding of human interactions during the Middle Paleolithic (MP) period in the Near East.

Archeology, Neanderthals, Human Evolution, Paleolithic Period, Israel

99 points by wglb 108 days ago | 93 comments

Evidence that our ancestors lived in rainforests 150k years ago (sheffield.ac.uk)
The earliest evidence of humans living in tropical rainforests in Africa, around 150,000 years ago, has been published in a new study in Nature by researchers at the University of Sheffield.

Human Evolution, Archaeology, Africa, Rainforests, Science

38 points by gmays 120 days ago | 5 comments

Explaining an apparent 17:1 female to male population question during the Neoli (sciencealert.com)
Around 7,000 years ago - all the way back in the Neolithic - something really peculiar happened to human genetic diversity. Over the next 2,000 years, and seen across Africa, Europe and Asia, the genetic diversity of the Y chromosome collapsed, becoming as though there was only one man for every 17 women.

Genetics, Human Evolution, Neolithic Period

8 points by todsacerdoti 124 days ago | 0 comments

Investigating the case of human nose shape and climate adaptation (2017) (plos.org)
The evolutionary reasons for variation in nose shape across human populations have been subject to continuing debate.

Human Evolution, Climate Adaptation, Anthropology, Biology

139 points by thunderbong 149 days ago | 86 comments

Puzzling fossils unearthed in China may rewrite the human story (rnz.co.nz)
A cache of human-like fossils from China has perplexed scientists for decades, defying explanation or categorization.

Paleontology, Archaeology, Anthropology, Human Evolution

6 points by LopRabbit 150 days ago | 0 comments

Superabundance Is Coming – But Only If Humanity Commits to Protecting the Planet (ageoftransformation.org)
Superabundance is within reach. But ironically, the precondition to getting it is by giving it up. It sounds paradoxical, but this is actually the key to the next great leap in human evolution. I set this out with a rigorous scientific framework in my new paper on the Planetary Phase Shift.

Sustainability, Environmentalism, Human Evolution, Science

12 points by noahbergamasco 158 days ago | 3 comments

New, big-headed archaic humans discovered: Who is Homo juluensis? (livescience.com)

Paleoanthropology, Human Evolution, Archaeology, Anthropology

3 points by zfg 166 days ago | 0 comments

How did human butts evolve to look that way? (massivesci.com)
What makes humans different from other animals? Ask any ten people and you're likely to get ten different answers, ranging from our relatively large brains, to our incredible use of language and symbols, to our ability to dramatically modify the world around us.

Human Evolution, Biology, Anthropology

88 points by thunderbong 186 days ago | 54 comments

Neanderthals cold-adapted? Ribcage reconstruction may hold the answer (phys.org)
Researchers at the Department of Paleobiology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid report that analysis of a Neanderthal ribcage from a cave in Iraq exhibits a "bell-shaped" thorax configuration typical of Neanderthals elsewhere, differing from that of modern humans.

Neanderthals, Paleontology, Anthropology, Human Evolution, Archaeology

54 points by wglb 187 days ago | 49 comments

Our muscles will atrophy as we climb the Kardashev Scale (solmaz.io)
This is an addendum to my previous post The Kilowatt Human. I mean it as half-entertainment and half-futuristic speculation. I extrapolate the following insight more into the future:

Science Fiction, Human Evolution, Technology

187 points by hosolmaz 193 days ago | 249 comments

Oldest human genomes reveal how a small group burst out of Africa (nytimes.com)
DNA from European fossils dating back 45,000 years offers new clues to how our species spread across the world.

Genetics, Human Evolution, Archaeology, History

99 points by diodorus 194 days ago | 90 comments

A new timeline for Neanderthal interbreeding with modern humans (news.berkeley.edu)
A new analysis of DNA from ancient modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Europe and Asia has determined, more precisely than ever, the time period during which Neanderthals interbred with modern humans, starting about 50,500 years ago and lasting about 7,000 years — until Neanderthals began to disappear.

Human Evolution, Genetics, Archaeology, Neanderthals

70 points by diodorus 197 days ago | 55 comments

Systemic proteome adaptions to 7-day complete caloric restriction in humans (nature.com)
Surviving long periods without food has shaped human evolution.

Science, Biology, Nutrition, Human Evolution, Calorie Restriction

7 points by alecst 257 days ago | 4 comments

The Larger Brains of Humans Come with a Tragic Cost, Study Finds (sciencealert.com)
Intelligence has allowed our species to not just survive, but thrive across a range of environments. But new research reveals our advantageous smarts come at a cost: a much greater susceptibility to brain decay.

Human Evolution, Neuroscience, Science, Aging

24 points by wjSgoWPm5bWAhXB 293 days ago | 12 comments

Human population dynamics in Paleolithic inferred from fossil dental phenotypes (science.org)

Paleontology, Human Evolution, Genetics, Archaeology, Anthropology

24 points by diodorus 307 days ago | 0 comments

Neanderthals and humans interbred 47k years ago for 7k years, research suggests (livescience.com)

Neanderthals, Human Evolution, Genetics, Archaeology, Science

16 points by bookofjoe 330 days ago | 20 comments

Magic Mushrooms May Have Shaped Our Consciousness (popularmechanics.com)

Psychedelic Drugs, Neuroscience, Human Evolution, Consciousness

34 points by rayrrr 338 days ago | 4 comments

Mitochondrial Eve (wikipedia.org)