The ancient hookup that changed humanity

Seven million years of human evolution

Animated life: Mary Leakey

550 million years of human evolution

Curiosity and control

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The story of the 16 bones that upended how we see our species

In 1856, quarry workers in the Neander Valley in the west of Germany stumbled on 16 humanlike – yet not quite human – bones that would upend our understanding of our species. The finding, which was made three years before Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, ignited a series of scientific controversies and discoveries that still inform what........

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