* Astronomy

Ancient Human Behaviour Uncovered
A major question in evolutionary studies today is how early did humans begin to think and behave in ways we would see as fundamentally modern" One index of 'behavioural modernity' is in the appearance of objects used purely as decoration or ornaments. Such items are widely regarded as having symbolic rather than practical value. By displaying them on the body as necklaces, pendants or bracelets or attached to clothing this also greatly increased their visual impact. The appearance of ornaments may be linked to a growing sense of self-awareness and identity amongst humans and any symbolic meanings would have been shared by members of the same group.
In Europe, amongst the oldest known symbolic ornaments are perforated animal teeth and shell beads, found in Upper Palaeolithic contexts that date to no more than 40,000 years ago. Such finds are apparently associated with both modern human and late Neanderthal sites. Together with cave paintings and engravings they offer the strongest indications that European societies of those times were capable of thinking in an abstract manner, and symbolising their ideas without relying on obvious links between a meaning and a sign. But, now, a growing body of evidence indicates symbolic material culture consisting of engravings, personal ornaments and systematic use of beads had emerged much earlier in Africa.

Source

Neanderthals as innovators? That the concept seems amusing goes to show how our sister species has become the butt of our jokes. Yet in the Middle Palaeolithic, some 300,000 years ago, innovation is what the Neanderthals were up to.
This period is usually regarded as undramatic in cultural and evolutionary terms, with little in the way of technological or cognitive development. Palaeoanthropologists get more excited about the changes in tools found later, as the Middle Palaeolithic gave way to the Upper, and as modern humans replaced Neanderthals, some 40,000 years ago.
Terry Hopkinson of the University of Leicester, UK, has now challenged this view, showing that Neanderthals were far from behaviourally static. They incorporated different forms of tool construction into a single technique, and learned to cope with the ecological challenges posed by habitats in eastern Europe.

Read more

The ancestors of humans began walking upright while they were still living in trees - not out on open land, according to a new theory.
The traditional view is of bipedalism evolved gradually from the four-legged "knuckle-walking" displayed by chimpanzees and gorillas today.
Now, a study published in the journal Science disputes this idea.
The British authors of the study say that upright walking was always a feature of great ape behaviour.
Humans inherited it without ever passing through a knuckle-walking phase.

Read more

A 30-million-year-old skull discovered in Egypt indicates that the brains of humans' earliest ancestors were not as advanced as some have thought.
The Old World anthropoid primates made their appearance on Earth more than 35 million years ago. These so-called catarrhines are named for their downturned nostrils. But they had other characteristics that have carried through the hominid line: they were diurnal, for example. In addition, they had flat fingernails, not particularly useful tails, and they were sexually dimorphic--the females were significantly smaller than the males.

Read more