Radical Anthropology1d ago

This late Middle #Pleistocene MSA site in S #Tunisia looks very interesting given how cutting edge the Moroccan sites are.

#WadiLazalim #Sahara

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-07816-x

A late Middle Pleistocene Middle Stone Age sequence identified at Wadi Lazalim in southern Tunisia - Scientific Reports

The late Middle Pleistocene, starting at around 300 ka, witnessed large-scale biological and cultural dynamics in hominin evolution across Africa including the onset of the Middle Stone Age that is closely associated with the evolution of our species—Homo sapiens. However, archaeological and geochronological data of its earliest appearance are scarce. Here we report on the late Middle Pleistocene sequence of Wadi Lazalim, in the Sahara of Southern Tunisia, which has yielded evidence for human occupations bracketed between ca. 300–130 ka. Wadi Lazalim contributes valuable information on the spread of early MSA technocomplexes across North Africa, that likely were an expression of large-scale diffusion processes.

Nature
Marcus Brandel2d ago

🦬🐘🦥🐪 For #FossilFriday Highway crews in the 1960s uncovered Ice Age megafauna while building Interstate 94 in central Minnesota. Among the finds were the tibiae bones of multiple bison — the fifth most common veribrate mammal element I’ve documented in collections across the Midwest. Each bone carries data from ancient herds roaming post-glacial midwestern landscapes.

#Pleistocene #AnokaSandPlain #BisonOccidentalis #Palaeontology #Fossils #Mnmuseums #CitizenScience

Radical AnthropologyNov 18

SW China funerary #ochre record of the terminal #Pleistocene.

This correctly refs article by our colleague @ochrewatts on the oldest anthropogenic ochre use up to half a million years ago in S Africa.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s40494-025-02140-9

New evidence for the terminal pleistocene funerary-associated ochre use in southwestern China - npj Heritage Science

Although archeological findings have suggested the long history of ochre exploitation by humans, the cultural implications of prehistoric funerary ochre remain unclear due to a lack of in-situ preservation consisting of ochre, artifacts, and human skeletons. This paper aims to investigate how humans in southwestern China interacted with ochre minerals in the terminal Pleistocene. We collected a set of red remains from the Qingshuiyuan Dadong site, dating to ca. 11 cal ka BP, which have been identified as hematite using multiple geochemistry techniques. Combined with microscopic observation of grave goods and ethnographic investigations, our study suggests that the ochre was consciously applied to stone artifacts and placed in burials as a possible component of funerary rituals at that time. By further integrating their archeological context, we inferred the use of ochre could be a cultural link in a broader regions.

Nature
Mikko KolkkalaNov 12
Tämä olisi kiva nähdä, tulee vaan jostain ihme omenatelkkarista. Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7kv... #Pleistocene

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age — ...
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age — Season 3 Official Trailer | Apple TV

YouTube
Headlines AfricaOct 31
Africa: Where Did the First People Come From? the Case for a Coastal Migration From Southern Africa: [The Conversation Africa] The origins and migrations of modern humans around the world are a hot topic of debate. Genetic analyses have pointed to Africa as the continent from which our ancestors dispersed in the Late Pleistocene epoch, which began about 126,000 years ago. Various dispersal routes… http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TP066g #Africa #HumanMigration #GeneticAncestry #Pleistocene #CoastalMigration
Radical AnthropologyOct 27

This study examines #craniofacial #development in early #Pleistocene #Homo #infants. Focus on a 'mandible (Omo 222-1973-2744) from the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia, attributed to Homo habilis, along with a mandible (KW 7000) from Kromdraai and a maxilla (DNH 83) from Drimolen, both in South Africa.'

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59734-x

Infant craniofacial diversity in Early Pleistocene Homo - Nature Communications

Craniofacial development and structure in early Pleistocene Homo is unclear due to a lack of well-preserved specimens. Here, the authors examine infant craniofacial fossils from eastern and southern Africa to demonstrate that taxonomic diversity in early Homo is already present very early in life.

Nature
Marcus BrandelOct 24

#FossilFriday, The Midwest’s #Homotherium! A partial skullcap, the first Homotherium specimen found in Minnesota, was recovered in 2008 from Tyson Spring Cave in Fillmore County.

The find, along with a Cervalces scotti skullcap, was later published by Chris Widga and colleagues in Boreas (Widga et al., 2012).

Images courtesy of: Illinois State Museum (Facebook), Tyson Spring Cave (Website), Widga et al. (2012, Boreas), and Mather (2009, Minnesota Conservation Volunteer)
#Pleistocene #LostBones

Radical AnthropologyOct 22

The importance of #scavenging in our #evolution.

I like the image which highlights factors like moonlight on hominin behaviour. #Pleistocene #lunar #ecology is the way to think!

https://phys.org/news/2025-10-carrion-human-importance-scavenging-evolution.html

Eating carrion may have made us human: The importance of scavenging in our evolution

A recent study proposes a new paradigm for understanding the role of carrion in the subsistence of human populations throughout their evolution. Ana Mateos and Jesús Rodríguez, scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), are the lead authors of the article recently published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Phys.org
Anthropology.netOct 20
A 40,000-year-old East Asian genome reveals an early Homo sapiens lineage with almost no Denisovan ancestry—challenging ideas about contact, migration, and evolution across Ice Age Asia. #Archaeogenetics #HumanEvolution #Denisovans #Pleistocene @janetk.bsky.social https://www.anthropology.net/p/the-missing-denisovan-shadow
The Missing Denisovan Shadow

How a newly discovered East Asian lineage is reshaping the story of human ancestry and evolution

Anthropology.net
Marcus BrandelOct 17

For #FossilFriday - another rare Midwest specimen! This Cervalces scotti partial skullcap and antler beam marks the first stag-moose specimen found in Minnesota.

Recovered in 2008 from Tyson Spring Cave the find, along with a Homothereium skullcap, was later identified by Chris Widga and colleagues, and published in Boreas (Widga et al., 2012), expanding the Ice Age megafauna taxa in the Great Lakes region.

#Pleistocene #Caving #Cervalcesscotti #Paleontology #CitizenScience #LostBones