Human Origins—Explorations and Discussions in Anthropology, Biology, Archaeology, and Geology discussion

This is a topic that I am hoping that we all take advantage of in this group. It seems like just about everyday we read about some new and amazing discovery that has been made associated with paleoanthropology and various hominin species. Most of the news articles come from some new research and data that has been published in one of the many technical or academic journals out there. While not all of these journals can be freely accessed, many can be. So feel free to briefly tell us what you've found, and then post the link to the article. I think this could end up being a pretty nifty resource for all of us.

Here's a recent and relevant example of a journal article that some of you might find of interest--

A couple of days ago, the Los Angeles Times reported a story about some researchers that had apparently discovered a location that showed the use of fire by humans approximately 1.0 million years ago in South Africa. Well, this got my attention as it had been my understanding that archaeological evidence for controlled human use of fire could only be shown as far back as 400 ky ago.

So, here's the link to actual article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) entitled, "Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa", http://www.pnas.org/content/early/201...

Fascinating reading! While I think many have speculated that human species must have used fire earlier than 400-500 ky ago, it was just difficult to find evidence. Maybe the technique described here can be applied in other suitable locations and stratigraphies.

On September 22, 2009, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (PNAS) published an entire issue entitled, "Out of Africa: Modern Human Origins--A Special Feature". There are nine superb articles included in the issue, and they are all very much worth reading. I am providing the citation and link to the issue here--

PNAS, September 22, 2009, volume 106, no. 38, 16005-16536 http://www.pnas.org/search?submit=yes...

I am cross-posting this citation and link in the "Out-of-Africa" folder too.

Thanks for these! I'll be checking them out in the next couple of weeks.