Hominin History Articles
Source-backed deep-dives on the species, fossil sites and science of human evolution — newest first. 58 articles and counting.
Why I Built Hominin History
Black bears and arrowheads in the Carolina woods, the last wild red wolves on the coast, Lucy in New York, and a wall of 404 dire wolf skulls at the La Brea Tar Pits — the personal journey that turned into this site.
About the author →Did Neanderthals Bury Their Dead? What the Evidence Shows
From La Chapelle-aux-Saints to Shanidar’s ‘flower burial’ — the evidence that Neanderthals buried their dead, and the case against.
September 2, 2026 · 10 min readDNA & GeneticsHow Ancient DNA Works: Reading Genomes From Fossils
DNA falls apart the moment you die — so how do we have Neanderthal genomes, 430,000-year-old sequences, and DNA read from cave dirt?
September 1, 2026 · 11 min readHuman Evolution 101Why Are Human Brains So Big? The Leading Theories
Our brains tripled in two million years and burn a fifth of our energy. Cooking, social groups and cheaper guts — the theories, weighed.
September 1, 2026 · 10 min readHuman MigrationWhen Did Humans Reach Australia? 65,000 Years of Evidence
Reaching Australia meant crossing open ocean, at least 90 km of it. Someone managed it more than 50,000 years ago — the evidence and the debate.
August 31, 2026 · 10 min readHuman MigrationWhen Did Humans Reach the Americas? The Evidence
Footprints at White Sands push human arrival back to 23,000 years ago. How the Clovis-first model collapsed, and what replaced it.
August 29, 2026 · 11 min readGuideHow Many Human Species Were There? The Full List
At least 21 hominin species have been named, and several coexisted at once. The full list with dates — and why being alone is the odd outcome.
August 28, 2026 · 11 min readSpecies ProfileDragon Man (Homo longi): The Skull That Was a Denisovan
Hidden in a well for 85 years, the Harbin skull was named Homo longi in 2021 — then 2025 DNA from its dental plaque identified it as Denisovan.
August 27, 2026 · 9 min readSpecies ProfileHomo luzonensis: The Small Hominin of the Philippines
Named in 2019 from thirteen bones in Callao Cave, this Philippine hominin mixes small modern teeth with australopith-like curved toes.
August 26, 2026 · 9 min readAbove are the eight most recent posts. The full collection of 58 articles — searchable and filterable by topic — lives in the archive.