The SciencesJuly 1, 2014
Archaeologists Edge Closer to Solving the Mysteries of Teotihuacán
After decades of investigation, fresh clues are emerging from Mexico’s City of Gods
Stories by Kate Wong
Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor for features at Scientific American, where she has focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for nearly 30 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home to the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, as well as to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and a “Big Day” race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Wong is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Bluesky @katewong.bsky.social
EvolutionJune 19, 2014
Neandertal Lineage Began in a "Game of Thrones" World
In a small chamber deep in the Atapuerca mountains in northern Spain lies one of the most extraordinary paleontological discoveries of all time: a massive assemblage of fossils belonging to an extinct member of the human family.
EvolutionMay 1, 2014
Fieldwork: Tiny Bones to Pick
Paleontologists brave wildfires, parasites and scorching temperatures in search of ancient mammal fossils
EvolutionMay 1, 2014
Oldest Footprints Outside Africa
English mud captures an ancestral stroll
ArchaeologyMay 1, 2014
Predictive Map Leads Fossil Hunters to Pay Dirt
New technique helps paleontologists narrow their search for ancient bones
April 17, 2014
Debate Flares over Identity of Celebrated Human Fossils
CALGARY--In 2010 paleoanthropologists announced to great fanfare that they had recovered from a South African cave two partial skeletons of a previously unknown member of the human family that lived nearly two million years ago.
EvolutionApril 1, 2014
Hunting Was a Driving Force in Human Evolution
EvolutionApril 1, 2014
How Hunting Made Us Human
For decades anthropologists have debated when and how our ancestors became skilled hunters. Recent discoveries have yielded surprising new insights
March 20, 2014
500-Pound "Chicken from Hell" Dinosaur Once Roamed North America
It stood 11.5-feet tall and tipped the scales at perhaps 500 pounds, with the body of a raptor, the head of a chicken and the crest of a cassowary; it sported big sharp claws and, probably, feathers.
EvolutionMarch 1, 2014
New Evidence Suggests That Neandertals Buried Their Dead
In their treatment of the dead, Neandertals were a lot like us
February 7, 2014
Human Footprints Discovered on Englands Coast Are Oldest Outside Africa
Archaeologists working on the eastern coast of England have found a series of footprints that were made by human ancestors sometime between 780,000 and one million years ago.
February 1, 2014
Feds Crush Six Tons of Ivory to Save Elephants
Why the U.S. destroyed a multimillion-dollar stockpile of illegal ivory
January 30, 2014
Sex with Neandertals Introduced Helpful and Harmful DNA into Modern Human Genome
Over the past few years a number of studies of ancient and contemporary genomes have reached the same stunning conclusion: early human species interbred, and people today carry DNA from archaic humans, including the Neandertals, as a result of those interspecies trysts.
EvolutionJanuary 21, 2014
Virtual Chicken Experiments Solve Mystery of Why Roosters Have Wattles
January 6, 2014
China Crushes Ivory, But Must Do More to Fight Wildlife Crime
In a development that has conservationists abuzz, Chinese officials crushed 6.1 tons of confiscated elephant ivory earlier today in a ceremony in Guangzhou.
January 1, 2014
The Most Fascinating Human Evolution Discoveries of 2013
Wow. Ive just spent the last couple days going through the paleoanthropology news that broke in 2013 and I must say it was a banner year. There were so many exciting new findings that bear on scientists understanding of just about every chapter of humanitys seven-million-year sagafrom our ancestors first upright steps to the peopling [...]
December 16, 2013
Neandertal Grave Attests to Complex Cognition
Some 60,000 years ago, in a small limestone cave in central France, Neandertals dug a grave and laid an elderly member of their clan to rest.
December 12, 2013
Duck-billed Dinosaur Had Bizarre Rooster’s Comb, Mummy Find Reveals
Thanks to an ancient mummy, scientists now know that the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus regalis sported a snazzy ornament atop its head akin to a roosters red crest.
December 12, 2013
Can We Avert the End of Elephants?
Within the next 10 years, Africa could lose 100,000 elephantsa fifth of the populationto poachers if the slaughter for their ivory tusks continues at current rates, according to a new analysis.
EvolutionDecember 1, 2013
Honeybees Can Recognize Individual Human Faces
November 19, 2013
Why the U.S. Destroyed Its Ivory Stockpile
ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARSENAL NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, COLO.–On a clear day outside Denver, dust filled the air surrounding an industrial rock crusher as it pulverized nearly six tons of confiscated elephant ivory.
November 1, 2013
East Africa's Small Carnivores Flourished While Large Ones Died Out
Comparison of small carnivore diversity over time with that of large carnivores points to an unexpected culprit
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
The Aviator's Dilemma
Military aviators learn to second-guess their senses
EvolutionSeptember 1, 2013
Case for (Very) Early Cooking Heats Up
Nearly two million years ago our ancestors began to barbecue. And those hot meals, Richard Wrangham argues, are what made us human