The first human-like traits to appear in the hominin fossil record are bipedal walking and smaller, blunt canines.

The timing of the earliest hominin dispersals into Eurasia has been elusive. Fossil evidence from Dmanisi, Georgia (~1.85–1.77 million years ago) represents the earliest indisputable hominin ...

Now the challenge -- one of the ultimate questions in the study of human origins -- is to understand why the earliest hominids stood up. "Bipedalism is a fundamental human characteristic," said Dr.

New research shows Australopithecus, an early human ancestor, likely consumed little to no meat, challenging previous ...

A study in Science analyzed nitrogen isotope ratios in fossilized tooth enamel from seven Australopithecus individuals (3.7–3 ...

When a big toe is opposable, you can still function properly as a biped." The scientists involved say that this work shows that early hominin feet had a mixed and versatile set of functions.

Lucy showed that human ancestors were up and walking around long before the earliest stone tools were made or brains got bigger, and subsequent fossil finds of much earlier bipedal hominids have ...

Starting in Africa with our early hominin relatives (who are more closely related to us than to chimpanzees ... while six-million-year-old Orrorin tugenensis leg bones show that they exhibited ...