Simon Underdown of Oxford Brookes University has proposed a mad-cow-like disease, or TSE, spread by cannibalism may have contributed to the demise of the Neanderthals. Evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism 100,000 years ago was discovered at the cave site of Moula-Guercy in France in 1999. “TSEs could have thinned the population, reducing numbers and contributing to […]

The nearly complete cranium known as Toumai was discovered in Chad in 2001. Some scientists claim the seven-million-year-old fossils represent the earliest hominid ever found, meaning that the evolutionary split between apes and humans happened earlier than previously thought. Critics say that Toumai did not have the brain capacity to be classified as a hominid.   […]