Press releases (archive)

New high precision radiocarbon dates of bone collagen show that a cultural exchange may have taken place between modern humans and Neanderthals more…

Genetics reveals the shared history of southern and eastern African hunter-gatherers

Populations in southern Africa that speak non-Bantu languages…

The first continent-wide perspective of the distribution of African ape habitat shows dramatic declines in recent years.

Over the last 30 years, great…

Max Planck researchers describe Denisovan genome, illuminating the relationships between Denisovans and present-day humans

The analyses of an…

Researchers have revealed that chimpanzees are not only capable of learning from one another, but also use this social information to form and…

New finds from Dikika, Ethiopia, push back the first stone tool use and meatconsumption by almost one million years and provide the first evidence…

New Kenyan Fossils Shed Light on the Evolution of the Genus Homo

Exciting new fossils discovered east of Lake Turkana confirm that there were two…

For the first time, researchers have found plant remains in the two-million-year-old dental plaque of ancient hominins’ teeth

The first direct evidence…

Max Planck scientists have completed the genome of the bonobo - the final great ape to be sequenced

In a project led by the Max Planck Institute for…

Despite similar ecological conditions neighboring chimpanzee groups use different hammers to crack nuts

Culture has long been proposed to be a…

Animals get stressed too: A new study on bonobos, one of our closest living relatives, reveals that life in the rainforest can be stressful

The results…

The Disneynature production “Chimpanzee” provides us with a fascinating insight into the life of our next closest relatives, chimpanzees

Oscar, Freddy…

In humans and chimpanzees knowledge is transmitted within a group by means of a majority principle

The transmission of knowledge to the next…

The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany, has completed the genome sequence of a Denisovan, a representative of an…

Dominant males invest in friendly relationships with females

Mate competition by males over females is common in many animal species. During mating…

Foundation of the Max Planck Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology in Rehovot/Israel

A new element is being brought in to the…

Research suggests that great apes are capable of calculating the odds before taking risks.

Chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos make more…

Wild chimpanzees monitor the information available to other chimpanzees and inform their ignorant group members of danger

Many animals produce alarm…

A recent study shows that, over the last two decades, areas with the greatest decrease in African great ape populations are those with no active…

The evolution of the brain in fossil hominins reveals improved olfactory functions in Homo sapiens

Differences in the temporal lobes and olfactory…

An international consortium develops a computerized method for dating when prehistoric languages were spoken

A computerized method for determining when…

Children as young as four years of age conform their public opinion to the majority

Adults and adolescents often adjust their behaviour and opinions to…

Humans like to work together in solving tasks - chimps don't

Recent studies have shown that chimpanzees possess many of the cognitive prerequisites…

Humankind has always been fascinated by the question of where we come from. Historically this quest for our evolutionary origins started in 19th…

An international team of researchers studying DNA patterns from modern and archaic humans has uncovered new clues about the movement and intermixing…

The versatile hand of Australopithecus sediba makes a better candidate for an early tool-making hominin than the hand of Homo habilis

Hand bones from…

American developmental psychologist, Dr. Michael Tomasello, has been named as this year’s recipient of the Wiley Prize in Psychology, awarded by the…

Ugandan forest monkeys use fruiting synchrony to find food

An international team of researchers including Karline Janmaat of the Max Planck Institute…

Children as young as three years of age share toy rewards equally with a peer, but only when both collaborated in order to gain them. Katharina…

Approx. 3 million years ago, females rather than males moved from the groups they were born in to new social groups.

So far ranging and residence…

Two species of gorillas live in central equatorial Africa. Divergence between the Western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and Eastern Gorillas (Gorilla…

The above publication by researchers led by Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig…

The sequencing of the nuclear genome from an ancient finger bone from a Siberian Cave shows that the cave dwellers were neither Neandertals nor modern…

Census confirms increase in population of the critically endangered Virunga mountain gorillas

The analysis of a census conducted in March and April…

Synchrotron Reveals Human Children Outpaced Neanderthals by Slowing Down

While it may seem like kids grow up too fast, evolutionary anthropologists …

Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany have documented species differences in the pattern of brain…

The advantages of a spatial memory – Mangabey monkeys are less efficient in finding food when they enter a new area

Studying the…

High social status and maternal support play an important role in the mating success of male bonobos

Success makes sexy - this does…

Analysis of the Neandertal genome indicates that, contrary to previous beliefs, humans and Neandertals interbred

The first genome…

Max Planck scientists decode the mitochondrial genome of a previously unknown hominin from the mountains of Central Asia

An…

The current status of the critically endangered mountain gorilla will soon be revealed through a census to determine its population…

Max Planck researchers report 18 cases of adoption of orphaned youngsters by group members in Taï forest chimpanzees. Half of the orphans were adopted…

Study on memory for dance moves discovers substantial cross-cultural diversity in human cognition

If your dancing instructor asked you to step left,…

In a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Harriet Over and Malinda Carpenter of Germany’s Max…

The isotopic analysis of a bone from one of the earliest modern humans in Asia, the 40,000 year old skeleton from Tianyuan Cave in the Zhoukoudian…

More than 20 000 people from all over the world have already signed the Manifesto for Apes and nature (mAn) which was launched on 4 April 2008 in…

Fossil skull fragment unveiled by Minister Plasterk (The Netherlands) in National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden

For the first time ever, a fossil…

The virtual reconstruction of a Neanderthal woman’s birth canal reveals insights into the evolution of human child birth.

Researchers from the…

Over a period of 10 years an international team of researchers led by Karline Janmaat of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary…

The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences Corporation have completed a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome

The…