Fossils of a strange early giraffoid have revealed the key driving forces in giraffe evolution, according to a study led by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Hardcover Book: Atlas of Primitive Man in China With color photos, charts and maps, Archeological evidence photos Author: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology - Chinese Academy of Sciences Year: 1980 Publisher: Science Press Condition: edge / cover wear Dust Jacket: Yes edge wear World maps / atlas / History of Civilization - Man

In a new paper published in National Science Review, a team of scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, the Shandong

This year is the 20th anniversary of sequencing the human genome. In honor of this event, a research team led by Prof. FU Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reviewed the most recent progress in the field of ancient DNA (aDNA), i.e., DNA obtained from the remains of past organisms. 

While primitive in some respects, the face, skull, and teeth show enough modern features to justify Homo naledi's placement in the genus Homo. Artist John Gurche spent some 700 hours reconstructing the head from bone scans, using bear fur for hair. NationalGeographic.com DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09560.019 Homo naledi Berger, Hawks, de Ruiter, Churchill, Schmid, Delezene, Kivell, Garvin, Williams, DeSilva, Skinner, Musiba, Cameron, Holliday, Harcourt-Smith, Ackermann, Bastir, Bogin, Bolter, Brophy, Cofran, Congdon, Deane, Dembo, Drapeau, Elliott, Feuerriegel, Garcia-Martinez, Green, Gurtov, Irish, Kruger, Laird, Marchi, Meyer, Nalla, Negash, Orr, Radovcic, Schroeder, Scott, Throckmorton, Tocheri, VanSickle, Walker, Wei & Zipfel, 2015 The braincase of this composite male skull of H. naledi measures a mere 560 cubic centimeters in volume—less than half that of the modern human skull behind it. news.NationalGeographic.com Abstract Homo naledi is a previously-unknown species of extinct hominin discovered within the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. This species is characterized by body mass and stature similar to small-bodied human populations but a small endocranial volume similar to australopiths. Cranial morphology of H. naledi is unique, but most similar to early Homo species including Homo erectus, Homo habilis or Homo rudolfensis. While primitive, the dentition is generally small and simple in occlusal morphology. H. naledi has humanlike manipulatory adaptations of the hand and wrist. It also exhibits a humanlike foot and lower limb. These humanlike aspects are contrasted in the postcrania with a more primitive or australopith-like trunk, shoulder, pelvis and proximal femur. Representing at least 15 individuals with most skeletal elements repeated multiple times, this is the largest assemblage of a single species of hominins yet discovered in Africa. Order Primates LINNAEUS 1758 Suborder Anthropoidea MIVART 1864 Superfamily Hominoidea GRAY 1825 Family Hominidae GRAY 1825 Tribe Hominini GRAY 1825 Genus Homo LINNAEUS 1758 Homo naledi sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:00D1E81A-6E08-4A01-BD98-79A2CEAE2411 Etymology: The word naledi means ‘star’ in the Sotho language and refers to the Dinaledi Chamber's location within the Rising Star cave system. Locality: The Dinaledi chamber is located approximately 30 meters underground, within the Rising Star cave system at about 26°1′13′′ S; 27°42′43′′ E. The system lies within the Malmani dolomites, approximately 800 meters southwest of the well-known site of Swartkrans in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Horizon and associations: The present sample of skeletal material from the Dinaledi Chamber was recovered during two field expeditions, in November 2013 and March 2014. Six specimens from an ex situ context can be identified as bird bones, and few fragmentary rodent remains have been recovered within the excavation area. Neither of these faunal constituents can presently be associated with the hominin fossil collection (Dirks et al., 2015). Aside from these limited faunal materials, the Dinaledi collection is entirely composed of hominin skeletal and dental remains. The collection so far comprises 1550 fossil hominin specimens, this number includes 1413 bone specimens and 137 isolated dental specimens; an additional 53 teeth are present in mandibular or maxillary bone specimens. Aside from the fragmentary rodent teeth, all dental crowns (n = 179) are hominin, recovered both from surface collection and excavation. Likewise, aside from the few bird elements, all morphologically informative bone specimens are clearly hominin. In all cases where elements are repeated in the sample, they are morphologically homogeneous, with variation consistent with body size and sex differences within a single population. These remains represent a minimum of 15 hominin individuals, as indicated by the repetition and presence of deciduous and adult dental elements. The geological age of the fossils is not yet known. Excavations have thus far recovered hominin material from Unit 2 and Unit 3 in the chamber (Dirks et al., 2015). Surface-collected hominin material from the present top of Unit 3, which includes material derived from both Unit 2 and Unit 3, represents a minority of the assemblage, and is morphologically indistinguishable from material excavated from in situ within Unit 3. In addition to general morphological homogeneity including cranial shape, distinctive morphological configurations of all the recovered first metacarpals, femora, molars, lower premolars and lower canines, are identical in both surface-collected and excavated specimens (see Figure 14 later in the text). These include traits not found in any other hominin species yet described. These considerations strongly indicate that this material represents a single species, and not a commingled assemblage. .......... Figure 2. Holotype specimen of Homo naledi, Dinaledi Hominin 1 (DH1). U.W. 101-1473 cranium in (A) posterior and (B) frontal views (frontal view minus the frontal fragment to show calvaria interior). U.W. 101-1277 maxilla in (C) medial, (D) frontal, (E) superior, and (F) occlusal views. (G) U.W. 101-1473 cranium in anatomical alignment with occluded U.W. 101-1277 maxilla and U.W. 101-1261 mandible in left lateral view. U.W. 101-1277 mandible in (H) occlusal, (I) basal, (J) right lateral, and (K) anterior views. Scale bar = 10 cm. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09560.019 Sunlight falls through the entrance of Rising Star cave, near Johannesburg. A remote chamber has yielded hundreds of fossil bones—so far. Says anthropologist Marina Elliott, seated, “We have literally just scratched the surface.” news.NationalGeographic.com A composite skeleton reveals H. naledi’s overall body plan. Its shoulders, hips, and torso hark back to earlier ancestors, while its lower body shows more humanlike adaptations. The skull and teeth show a mix of traits. news.NationalGeographic.com Figure 1. Dinaledi skeletal specimens. The figure includes approximately all of the material incorporated in this diagnosis, including the holotype specimen, paratypes and referred material. These make up 737 partial or complete anatomical elements, many of which consist of several refitted specimens. Specimens not identified to element, such as non-diagnostic long bone or cranial fragments, and a subset of fragile specimens are not shown here. The ‘skeleton’ layout in the center of the photo is a composite of elements that represent multiple individuals. This view is foreshortened; the table upon which the bones are arranged is 120-cm wide for scale. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09560.003 Figure 3. Cartoon illustrating the geological and taphonomic context and distribution of fossils, sediments and flowstones within the Dinaledi Chamber. The distribution of the different geological units and flowstones is shown together with the inferred distribution of fossil material. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09561 Figure 1. Geological setting of Cradle of Humankind and Rising Star cave system. (A) Geology of Johannesburg Dome and surroundings, showing the Cradle of Humankind world heritage site in bold black outline. (B) surface geology of the immediate surroundings of the Rising Star cave system, showing the fault sets and variable chert content in the dolomite that controlled cave formation. The cave system is confined to a chert-poor stromatolitic dolomite horizon. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09561 Lee R Berger, John Hawks, Darryl J de Ruiter, Steven E Churchill, Peter Schmid, Lucas K Delezene, Tracy L Kivell, Heather M Garvin, Scott A Williams, Jeremy M DeSilva, Matthew M Skinner, Charles M Musiba, Noel Cameron, Trenton W Holliday, William Harcourt-Smith, Rebecca R Ackermann, Markus Bastir, Barry Bogin, Debra Bolter, Juliet Brophy, Zachary D Cofran, Kimberly A Congdon, Andrew S Deane, Mana Dembo, Michelle Drapeau, Marina C Elliott, Elen M Feuerriegel, Daniel Garcia-Martinez, David J Green, Alia Gurtov, Joel D Irish, Ashley Kruger, Myra F Laird, Damiano Marchi, Marc R Meyer, Shahed Nalla, Enquye W Negash, Caley M Orr, Davorka Radovcic, Lauren Schroeder, Jill E Scott, Zachary Throckmorton, Matthew W Tocheri, Caroline VanSickle, Christopher S Walker, Pianpian Wei and Bernhard Zipfel. 2015. Homo naledi, A New Species of the Genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife. 4. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09560 New Species Of Ancient Human Discovered In Remote South African Cave huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/10/homo-naledi-new-species-human-discovered-south-african-cave_n_8115120.html This Face Changes the Human Story. But How? on.NatGeo.com/1ig3kot via @NatGeo Homo naledi: New species of ancient human discovered, claim scientists http://gu.com/p/4c8jb New human-like species discovered in S Africa bbc.com/news/science-environment-34192447 Abstract We describe the physical context of the Dinaledi Chamber within the Rising Star cave, South Africa, which contains the fossils of Homo naledi. Approximately 1550 specimens of hominin remains have been recovered from at least 15 individuals, representing a small portion of the total fossil content. Macro-vertebrate fossils are exclusively H. naledi, and occur within clay-rich sediments derived from in situ weathering, and exogenous clay and silt, which entered the chamber through fractures that prevented passage of coarser-grained material. The chamber was always in the dark zone, and not accessible to non-hominins. Bone taphonomy indicates that hominin individuals reached the chamber complete, with disarticulation occurring during/after deposition. Hominins accumulated over time as older laminated mudstone units and sediment along the cave floor were eroded. Preliminary evidence is consistent with deliberate body disposal in a single location, by a hominin species other than Homo sapiens, at an as-yet unknown date. Paul HGM Dirks, Lee R Berger, Eric M Roberts, Jan D Kramers, John Hawks, Patrick S Randolph-Quinney, Marina Elliott, Charles M Musiba, Steven E Churchill, Darryl J de Ruiter, Peter Schmid, Lucinda R Backwell, Georgy A Belyanin, Pedro Boshoff, K Lindsay Hunter, Elen M Feuerriegel, Alia Gurtov, James du G Harrison, Rick Hunter, Ashley Kruger, Hannah Morris, Tebogo V Makhubela, Becca Peixotto, Steven Tucker. 2015. Geological and Taphonomic Context for the New Hominin Species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife. 4. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.09561 eLife digest Modern humans, or Homo sapiens, are now the only living species in their genus. But as recently as 20,000 years ago there were other species that belonged to the genus Homo. Together with modern humans, these extinct human species, our immediate ancestors and their close relatives are collectively referred to as ‘hominins’. Now, Dirks et al. describe an unusual collection of hominin fossils that were found within the Dinaledi Chamber in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa. The fossils all belong to a newly discovered hominin species called Homo naledi, which is described in a related study by Berger et al. The unearthed fossils are the largest collection of hominin fossils from a single species ever to be discovered in Africa, and include the remains of at least 15 individuals and multiple examples of most of the bones in the skeleton. Dirks et al. explain that the assemblage from the Dinaledi Chamber is unusual because of the large number of fossils discovered so close together in a single chamber deep within the cave system. It is also unusual that no other large animal remains were found in the chamber, and that the bodies had not been damaged by scavengers or predators. The fossils were excavated from soft clay-rich sediments that had accumulated in the chamber over time; it also appears that the bodies were intact when they arrived in the chamber, and then started to decompose. Dirks et al. discuss a number of explanations as to how the remains came to rest in the Dinaledi Chamber, which range from whether Homo naledi lived in the caves to whether they were brought in by predators. Most of the evidence obtained so far is largely consistent with these bodies being deliberately disposed of in this single location by the same extinct hominin species. However, a number of other explanations cannot be completely ruled out and further investigation is now needed to uncover the series of events that resulted in this unique collection of hominin fossils.

An international team of scientists has unearthed 57 stone tools and butchered animal bones at Kalinga in the Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon, the largest and most northerly island in the Philippines.

Though Ambopteryx longibrachium was likely a glider, the fossil is helping scientists discover how dinosaurs first took to the skies

New Tiny Dinosaur With Bat-Like Wings Helps Us Understand The Origin Of Flight

Homo habilis, extinct species of human, the most ancient member of the human genus. It inhabited parts of sub-Saharan Africa from roughly 2.4 to 1.5 million years ago. Many of its features appear to be intermediate between the relatively primitive Australopithecus and the more-advanced Homo species.

Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) have reported a new species of multituberculate—a type of extinct Mesozoic rodent—with well-preserved middle ear bones from the Cretaceous Jehol Biota of China. The findings were published in Nature on November 27.

Dinosaur claws had many functions, but now a team from the University of Bristol and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing has shown some predatory dinosaurs used their claws for digging or even for display.

Cretaceous Leviathan The only known dinosaur adapted to life in water, Spinosaurus swam the rivers of North Africa a hundred million years ago. The massive predator lived in a region mostly devoid of large, terrestrial plant-eaters, subsisting mainly on huge fish. Art: Davide Bonadonna. Sources: Nizar Ibrahim, University of Chicago; Cristiano Dal Sasso and Simone Maganuco, Natural History Museum of Milan | ngm.nationalgeographic.com ABSTRACT We describe adaptations for a semiaquatic lifestyle in the dinosaur Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. These adaptations include retraction of the fleshy nostrils to a position near the mid-region of the skull and an elongate neck and trunk that shift the center of body mass anterior to the knee joint. Unlike terrestrial theropods, the pelvic girdle is downsized, the hind limbs are short, and all of the limb bones are solid without an open medullary cavity, for buoyancy control in water. The short, robust femur with hypertrophied flexor attachment and the low, flat-bottomed pedal claws are consistent with aquatic foot-propelled locomotion. Surface striations and bone microstructure suggest that the dorsal “sail” may have been enveloped in skin that functioned primarily for display on land and in water. Ibrahim, N., Sereno, P., Dal Sasso, C., Maganuco, M., Martill, D., Zouhri, S., Myhrvold, N., Iurino, D. 2014. Semiaquatic Adaptations in a Giant Predatory Dinosaur. Science. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1258750 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2014/09/10/science.1258750.DC1/Ibrahim.SM.pdf Digital skeletal reconstruction and transparent flesh outline of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. Color codes are used to show the origin of different parts of the digital skeletal model. Bones of the neotype and for Suchomimus tenerensis were CT-scanned, surfaced and size-adjusted before being added to the model. Color coding: red, neotype (FSAC-KK 11888); orange, Stromer’s bones; yellow, isolated bones from the Kem Kem; green, surrogate bones modeled or taken from the spinosaurids Suchomimus, Baryonyx, Irritator or Ichthyovenator; blue, inferred bones from adjacent bones. A red dot below the posterior dorsal centra shows the approximate position of the center of mass. Model by Tyler Keillor, Lauren Conroy, and Erin Fitzgerald. | phenomena.nationalgeographic.com A reconstruction of the skull of Spinosaurus, with known elements in blue. Art by Davide Bonadonna. Researchers have long debated whether dinosaurs could swim, but there has been little direct evidence for aquadinos. Some tantalizing hints have appeared, however, in claimed "swim tracks" made by the bellies of dinos in Utah and oxygen isotopes indicating possible aquatic habitats in a group of dinosaurs called spinosaurs. Now, a research team working in Morocco has found the most complete skeleton yet of a giant carnivore called Spinosaurus, very fragmentary remains of which were first discovered in 1912 in Egypt. The new fossils not only confirm that Spinosaurus was bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex, but also show that it had evolutionary adaptations—ranging from pedal-like feet to a nostril far back on the head to high bone density like that of hippos—clearly suited for swimming in lakes and rivers. Michael Balter. 2014. Giant Dinosaur was a Terror of Cretaceous Waterways. Science. 345(6202): 1232. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.345.6202.1232 Scientists Report First Semiaquatic Dinosaur, Spinosaurus Massive Predator Was More Than 9 Feet Longer Than Largest Tyrannosaurus rex http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2014/09/11/scientists-report-first-semiaquatic-dinosaur-spinosaurus http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140911-spinosaurus-fossil-discovery-dinosaur-science http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/09/11/the-new-spinosaurus http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/meet-mighty-spinosaurus-first-swimming-dinosaur-180952679/ http://phys.org/news/2014-09-shark-munching-spinosaurus-first-known-dinosaur.html http://www.skeletaldrawing.com/home/theres-something-fishy-about-spinosaurus9112014 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2014/09/11/giant-semiaquatic-predatory-dinosaur/ http://paleoillustration.tumblr.com/post/56088019762/spinosaurus-project-digital-and-traditional facebook.com: Davide Bonadonna Spinosaurus: The First Semi-Aquatic Dinosaur http://www.science20.com/news_articles/spinosaurus_the_first_semiaquatic_dinosaur-144684 via @science2_0 ------------------------------------------------- pre-2014 PaleoArt Spinosaurus aegyptiacus All Yestered by Rodrigo-Vega on @deviantART

For Elisabeth Daynès, sculpting ancient humans and their ancestors is both an art and a science

The Ginglymodi are a group of ray-finned fishes that make up one of three major subdivisions of the infraclass Neopterygii. Extant ginglymodians are represented by gars, which inhabit freshwater environments of North and Central America and Cuba. Drs. XU Guanghui and WU Feixiang, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported the discovery of well-preserved fossils of a new ginglymodian, Kyphosichthys grandei gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) marine deposits (Guanling Formation) in Luoping, eastern Yunnan Province, China. The discovery documents the first known fossil record of highly deep-bodied ginglymodians, adding new information on the early morphological diversity of this group.

Though Ambopteryx longibrachium was likely a glider, the fossil is helping scientists discover how dinosaurs first took to the skies

The Bahe River valley of central China is regarded as one of the most important hominin sites from the late early Pleistocene to the middle Pleistocene. Homo erectus fossils were unearthed at the Gongwangling and Chenjiawo localities, and more than 30 Palaeolithic open-air sites were investigated in the 1960s in this region. However, the age, features and the assemblages of stone tools collected from the Lantian region were not well understood. Dr. WANG Shejiang, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his collaborators discovered eight new Palaeolithic open-air sites and collected 770 stone artefacts from 2009 to 2011 in the Lantian area of the Bahe River valley, central China. According to a paper published in Chinese Science Bulletin 59(7), it is the first time that Acheulian-type large cutting tools from the late Pleistocene have been identified in this region. This study distinguishes age gaps between Western world and East Asian Acheulian-type tools.

It was sealed off for 40,000 years.

A new analysis of two 7.2 million-year-old fossils belonging to a hominin species nicknamed “El Graeco” from Mediterranean Europe, suggests that mankind emerged in Europe and not in Africa. The new study could reshape history, since it openly challenges the “out of Africa theory.”

Homo habilis, extinct species of human, the most ancient member of the human genus. It inhabited parts of sub-Saharan Africa from roughly 2.4 to 1.5 million years ago. Many of its features appear to be intermediate between the relatively primitive Australopithecus and the more-advanced Homo species.

A new study reveals that Nerja is the European cave containing Paleolithic Art with the most confirmed and recurrent visits during Prehistory

Starting about 7,000 years ago, something weird seems to have happened to men: Over the next two millennia, recent studies suggest, their genetic diversity - specifically, the diversity of their Y chromosomes - collapsed. So extreme was that collapse that it was as if there was only one man left to mate for every 17 women.

Did five million years of duking it out over females build the modern human male visage?

A team of osteoarchaeologists, archaeologists and veterinarian scientists from Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Atatürk University, University of Environmental and Life Sciences, ul. Kożuchowska, has found evidence of early Romans breeding dogs with flat faces. In their study, reported in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, the group examined the remains of a dog found in a tomb in what was once a city called Tralleis, in what is now modern Turkey.

Paleolithic sexytimes reveal that Homo sapiens made it out of Africa earlier than we thought.

A team of researchers from Seoul National University, the University of Alberta and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences has identified the first known example of a streamlined, non-avian theropod dinosaur to walk on two legs. In their paper published in Communications Biology, the group describes where the fossil was found, its condition, and its features that were used to help identify it as a new dinosaur species.

The whole concept of family dinner, if you think about it, is pretty elemental: you gather around a table in the waning hours, you and yours, and eat some grub, converse about your day and, if you’re lucky, life its ownself. But sometimes — or, most of the time — our dinners can resemble not so much a family of... Read more »

The extinct arthropods date back at least 490 million years.

Remains of a species of herbivorous dinosaur previously unknown in the southern hemisphere have been discovered in Chile, challenging long-held beliefs about the range of duck-billed dinosaurs, scientists said Friday.

The fossil, found in Spain, is mysteriously related to an ancient group of homonins called the Denisovans, previously found only in Siberia

For Elisabeth Daynès, sculpting ancient humans and their ancestors is both an art and a science

Got some very nice feedback on the Hominidae chart, so this is a reworked one.

The word "tetrapod" means "four feet" and includes all species alive today that have four feet — but this group also includes many animals that don't have four feet. That's because the group includes all the organisms (living and extinct) that descended from the last common ancestor of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. So, for example, the ichthyosaur, an