Seth Chagi (World of Paleoanthropology🏺)

Somewhere in deep history, someone made the first human joke.

👉 What do you think it was about?

#WOPA #DeepHistory #HumanOrigins #Anthropology

Agustín Fuentes, bioanthropologist: ‘Saying that human beings are binary is a failure; it’s not biology, it’s philosophy’ The Princeton professor, author of ‘Sex is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary,’ reflects on human diversity and the ideological impositions that simplify the variety of genes, gonads and ...

english.elpais.com/science-tech...

YouTube video by World of Paleoanthropology Neanderthal Art? The Missing Record

New drop on the #PaleoPostPodcast 🎙️
Neanderthals… symbol-makers or just really good at practical hacks? Dr. Michael Bolus breaks it down and the evidence might surprise you.

Catch the episode: youtu.be/dPfS0rcxtUg
#Neanderthals #DeepHistory #HumanOrigins #ScienceCommunication #PaleoClub

Engare Sero, Tanzania (Late Pleistocene): volcanic-ash mud captured 400+ Homo sapiens footprints—walking, running, and a cohort of mostly adult females traveling together. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #FootprintFriday #EngareSero
Paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Dropped into the Paleolithic with no tools…
would you survive 24 hours?

👉 What ONE ancient skill do you wish you had today?
Fire? Tracking? Foraging? Calm under danger?

#WOPA #DeepHistory #HumanOrigins #Anthropology

The recording from this talk is now on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8l2...

The recording from this talk is now available on the #HEASVienna YouTube channel.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE56...

Raw Story: Colombian fisherman's family files formal murder complaint against Pete Hegseth.

America has become the shithole country that the United Nations investigates for crimes against humanity.💔
#ProudBlue #Pinks #TrumpIsUnfitForOffice

A black-and-white composite plate of Orrorin tugenensis fossils arranged on a dark background, each labeled with a letter. At the top left (A) and top right (B) are two views of a femur, each preserving the femoral head and part of the shaft. Near the center (D and E) are two mandibular fragments: D is a broader jaw section with cracked cortical surfaces, and E is a narrower, more elongated jaw piece with several teeth still in place. Along the lower left (J) and lower right (K) are two views of the humerus, showing sections of the shaft and a partially preserved distal end. Surrounding these main elements are smaller bone fragments labeled C, F, G, H, I, L, M, and N—irregular pieces representing additional isolated bits of long bone and other skeletal material. All fossils show weathering, breakage, and mineralization typical of early Miocene–Pliocene hominin remains.

The human ancestor Orrorin tugenensis was announced at a press conference in Nairobi #OnThisDay in 2000. The find consisted of a femur, humerus, and teeth, including small canines. 🧪
📸Australian Museum

Top 10 discoveries about ancient people from DNA in 2024 New resolution is emerging of some events in ancient human populations, and a clearer view of some parts of the genome.

I’m writing up this year’s top discoveries from ancient DNA and it reminded me to circulate a link to last year’s top 10 list. Some amazing stuff there and remarkable how fast this field moves!

www.johnhawks.net/p/top-10-dis...

Dhofar, Oman (MIS 5, ~106–75 ka): Nubian Levallois cores & points place African MSA technology in Arabia—evidence for desert-route dispersals. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #NubianLevallois #Arabia
Paper: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

AI IMAGE INCLUDED

YouTube video by World of Paleoanthropology Neanderthal Art? The Missing Record

Which ancient human species is the most misunderstood — and why?

Neanderthals? Denisovans? Someone weirder?

Your picks help shape the next Paleo Post Podcast episode.

Latest episode: youtu.be/dPfS0rcxtUg

#PaleoPostPodcast #WOPA #HumanOrigins

Ga-Mohana Hill, South Africa (~105 ka): collected calcite crystals and ostrich eggshell water containers show symbolic tech in the Kalahari interior—innovation far from the coast. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #Kalahari #MSA
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

AI 🤖

Sounds fun 🤩

YouTube video by World of Paleoanthropology Neanderthal Art? The Missing Record

What human-origins topic do you want the Paleo Post Podcast to tackle next?

Drop your idea 👇
Latest episode here: youtu.be/dPfS0rcxtUg

#WOPA #PaleoPostPodcast #Anthropology #DeepHistory

Mark Kelly Blasts Hegseth As A Twelve-Year-Old Playing Army While Trump Panics Over His Cratering Polls and The Federal Courts Humiliate Him By Disqualifying Alina Habba Adults have entered the room

Mark Kelly Blasts Hegseth As A Twelve-Year-Old Playing Army While Trump Panics Over His Cratering Polls and The Federal Courts Humiliate Him By Disqualifying Alina Habba

YouTube video by World of Paleoanthropology Neanderthal Art? The Missing Record

#Neanderthals weren’t just brutes; they were engineers, artists, and problem solvers.

We explore their advanced tech, tools, and adaptability.

Want to know what separates innovation from instinct?

youtu.be/dPfS0rcxtUg?...

#PaleoPost #PaleoClub #HumanOrigins #Neanderthals #ScienceCommunication

Students: the deadline for #AABA2026 travel awards is this week!

Social and emotional cognition in Pleistocene hominin evolution: The role of biocultural processes Patterns and processes of social cognition underlie much of the behavioral and ecological flexibility and adaptive capacity that characterizes the pri…

Just out "Social and emotional cognition in Pleistocene hominin evolution: The role of biocultural processes" with @johnhawks.net @marckissel.bsky.social Penny Spikins, Jennifer French and me. Open access in Journal of Archaeological Science... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Biological Anthropology and What It Means to be Human Dr. Agustín Fuentes discusses humanist questions around the power of belief and sex as a spectrum.

New #ShapingScience episode! NYAS
In it I chat with NickDirks about human evolution, belief, cooperation, & the scientific evidence behind sex as a spectrum. www.nyas.org/ideas-insigh...

Meeting Lucy: How a World-First European Exhibition Brought Visitors Face to Face With the Fossil That 'Shrinks Time' Two Australopithecus fossils named Lucy and Selam made a rare trip out of Ethiopia for a 60-day display at the National Museum in Prague

In case you missed it, my story about Lucy's first-ever European showing:
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

New from Melina Packer and Ambika Kamath @prosocialworld.bsky.social Dismantling the sex binary requires confronting the racist and heterosexist foundations of sexual selection theory. www.prosocial.world/posts/lets-t...

Bringing emotional cognition to deep time In a new article, my coauthors and I draw upon cognitive science to draw out archaeological traces of ancient social lives

I'm really pleased that my first coauthored article of 2026 is out. With some amazing folks @marckissel.bsky.social @anthrofuentes.bsky.social we think through a synthesis of behavioral ecology, emotional cognition, and archaeology.

www.johnhawks.net/p/bringing-e...

Trump Posts Once a Minute in Unhinged Late-Night Spree The president went posting-crazy, even for him.

Tell me that the MRI was perfect again.

Trump has brain rot. www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump...

Black-and-white portrait of W.C. Pei (Pei Wenzhong) in later life. He has short white hair, heavy brows, and a gentle, slightly smiling expression. He wears a dark buttoned jacket. The background is plain and dark.

Black-and-white photograph of a fossil cranium (Sinanthropus, later known as Homo erectus) on a book plate. The skullcap has cracks and is resting on matrix. The page is yellowed with age, and a scale bar appears beneath the image.

A book spread showing the opening page of W.C. Pei’s paper titled “An Account of the Discovery of an Adult Sinanthropus Skull in the Chou Kou Tien Deposit.” The text is typed in an old academic style, beginning with Pei’s description of returning to the field in 1929 to excavate the cave deposits at Zhoukoudian. The page has a cream, slightly worn appearance.

#OnThisDay in 1929, paleontologist Pei Wenchung was digging in a freezing, 40-meter-deep crevasse at Zhoukoudian - hammer in one hand and candle in the other - when he uncovered what became the first Peking Man skull. 🏺https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/pei-wenzhong/

Pech-de-l’Azé I & Abri Peyrony (~51–48 ka): rib-bone lissoirs used to smooth hides—Europe’s earliest specialized bone tools, made by Neanderthals. #PaleoPost #HumanOrigins #Neanderthals #Lissoir
Paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Ritual didn’t start with temples.
It started with fire, silence, and intention.

👉 When do you think the first human ritual began?

#WOPA #DeepHistory #HumanOrigins #Paleoanthropology

The first migrations weren’t grand expeditions—just families walking toward possibility.

👉 What do you think pushed the earliest humans to leave Africa?

#WOPA #DeepHistory #HumanOrigins #Anthropology

Awesome new episode all about #Neanderthal art! Check it out!!!!