Humans news stories

Scientists claim to have brought Game of Thrones’ dire wolves back from extinction
9th April 2025 | itv.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Scientists claim they have resurrected the dire wolf using ancient DNA, cloning and gene-editing technology. The species of wolf, which died out some 12,500 years ago, is the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal”, according to Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences.

6,500-year-old hunting weapons found in Texas cave are among the oldest known in North America
9th April 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists in Texas have discovered a cache of ancient hunting weapons, including the remains of poison darts, that is one the earliest collections of hunting weapons ever found in North America.

Stunning reconstruction reveals warrior and his weapons from 4,000-year-old burial in Siberia
7th April 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

A new full-body reconstruction depicts a warrior wearing armor and holding weapons, all of which were found in a 4,000-year-old burial in Siberia.

This Bronze-Age Tablet Is The Oldest Customer Complaint on Record
7th April 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Almost 4,000 years ago, a Mesopotamian man named Nanni was so disappointed with the copper he bought from a trader named Ea-nāṣir, that he decided to write a formal complaint.

Can psychedelics make you a more moral person? New study explores the link
4th April 2025 | psypost.org | Ancient, Humans

Recent research has found that individuals who had meaningful psychedelic experiences tended to report increases in moral expansiveness. In other words, the scope of entities (humans, animals, the environment, etc.) that they considered worthy of moral consideration and protection expanded. The research was published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

Climate change and prehistoric human populations: Study finds eastward shift of settlement areas at end of last Ice Age
4th April 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Earth, Humans

A new study sheds light on how prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations in Europe coped with climate changes over 12,000 years ago…The study has been published in PLOS One under the title “Large scale and regional demographic responses to climatic changesin Europe during the Final Palaeolithic.”

Skeletons from ‘green Sahara’ offer genetic peek at a lost human population
3rd April 2025 | science.org | Ancient, Earth, Humans

Today, the Sahara Desert is a sea of sand, but 7000 years ago it was a lush savanna full of hippos, crocodiles, elephants, and giraffes. During a humid, monsoon-heavy interval that spanned more than 5 millennia, people hunted, fished, and eventually herded livestock in a landscape now covered by shifting dunes. The findings are reported in a paper this week in Nature.

‘City-Killer’ Asteroid Impact Still a Possibility (Just Not With Earth)
2nd April 2025 | sciencealert.com | Humans, Space

According to a report led by planetary astronomer Andrew Rivkin of Johns Hopkins University, 2024 YR4 has a small chance of smacking into the Moon when the asteroid next flies close to Earth in December 2032.

Stone tool discovery in China shows people in East Asia were innovating during the Middle Paleolithic, like in Europe and Middle East
1st April 2025 theconversation.com | Ancient, Humans

In a study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of international collaborators describe their discovery in China of the first complete example of a Middle Paleolithic technology previously seen only in Europe and the Middle East.

Why children may have taken part in creating prehistoric cave art
1st April 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

A team of Tel Aviv University researchers from the field of prehistoric archaeology has proposed an innovative hypothesis regarding an intriguing question: Why did ancient humans bring their young children to cave-painting sites—deep underground—through dark, meandering, hazardous passages? The paper is published in the journal Arts.

Scientists find genetic basis for how much people enjoy music
31st March 2025 | psypost.org | Humans, Misc.

A new twin study published in Nature Communications provides evidence that how much people enjoy music is partly influenced by genetic factors. Researchers found that over half the variation in people’s sensitivity to musical pleasure can be traced back to genetic differences.

A ‘landmark finding’: Homo naledi buried their dead 250,000 years ago, according to newly updated research
31st March 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

Controversial claim that Homo naledi buried its dead gets new proof from 2025 research study.

A Huge Discovery in Morocco Could Rewrite The History of Africa
31st March 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

A new archaeological discovery at Kach Kouch in Morocco challenges the long-held belief that the Maghreb (north-west Africa) was an empty land before the arrival of the Phoenicians from the Middle East in around 800 BCE. It reveals a much richer and more complex history than previously thought.

Searching for green in a concrete world
28th March 2025 | bbc.co.uk | Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Kwesia X grew up in south east London, surrounded by busy roads and tower blocks. When faced with tragedy and homelessness, she turned to nature to find peace. Now she’s working hard to bring the experience of the natural world to young people in the city, and they’re often amazed by the plants and creatures living in the concrete jungle. You can find her videos on her YouTube channel, City Girl in Nature.

New study shows LSD changes brain connectivity in unique ways compared to MDMA and amphetamines
28th March 2025 sp-ao.shortpixel.ai | Humans, Misc.

A new brain imaging study has revealed that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) alters brain connectivity in ways that are notably different from methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDMA) and d-amphetamine…The research was published in Molecular Psychiatry.

Mysterious Giants May Be a Whole New Kind of Life That No Longer Exists
28th March 2025 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Humans

Researchers in the UK have now suggested in a report that is yet to be peer reviewed that there’s a very good reason these oddities don’t fit neatly on the tree of life – they belong to a branch all of their own, with no modern equivalent.

News stories covering humans, psychology and health.