Understanding infant corpse carrying behaviour in primates could provide clues to how humans perceive death

New research looks for patterns in this sad phenomenon.

Chimpanzee and bonobo mothers have been observed carrying their deceased infants on their backs for years. Why does this happen?

New University of Oxford research, published in Biology Letters, finds that carrying is likely driven by the strong bond between chimpanzee mothers and their offspring and that the cause of an infant’...

Abstract. Understanding the mechanisms underlying non-human primate death-related behaviours is essential for reconstructing the evolution of human respons

Artistic representations of ancient humans often show large men with bulging muscles – but our ancestors were actually smaller than us, in both height and body mass. Columnist Michael Marshall reveals...

An invisible difference in 10% of humans poses deep mysteries in several fields at once.

The biggest jump in body size among our ancestors happened around 2–2.5 million years ago, with the appearance of Homo rudolfensis or Homo erectus/ergaster, rather than gradually across the whole huma...

Learn how fossils show human ancestors did not grow bigger in a straight line, but split into larger and smaller evolutionary paths.

The evolutionary trajectory of hominin body size remains contested, with prior studies suggesting a gradual increase or lineage-specific shifts. He...

Brain size and bipedalism are the most likely drivers of our species’ right-hand dominance, according to new research

Humans are the only primates with a population-wide hand preference. A new Oxford-led study, 'Bipedalism and brain expansion explain human handedness', published in PLOS Biology, traces it back to bip...

Humans are the only primates with a population-wide hand preference. A new Oxford-led study, 'Bipedalism and brain expansion explain human handedness', published in PLOS Biology, traces it back to bip...

One of the most influential hypotheses about primate evolution postulates that their origin, radiation, and major dispersals were associated with e...

Primates—the group of animals that includes monkeys, apes and humans—first evolved in cold, seasonal climates around 66 million years ago, not in the warm tropical forests scientists previously believed.

One of the most influential hypotheses about primate evolution postulates that their origin, radiation, and major dispersals were associated with e...

Objectives The functional interpretation of postcranial remains of Middle Miocene great apes from Europe (dryopithecines) suggests a combination of quadrupedalism and orthograde behaviors without mo...

Objectives The functional interpretation of postcranial remains of Middle Miocene great apes from Europe (dryopithecines) suggests a combination of quadrupedalism and orthograde behaviors without mo.....

" Models are not literal representations of reality but provide simplifications or substitutes of the events, scenarios or behaviours that are being studied or predicted. All models make...

New research challenges old assumptions about how the human brain evolved, revealing a more complex, gradual pattern of growth within species.