The challenge of studying human cognitive evolution is identifying unique features of our
intelligence while explaining the processes by which they arose. Comparisons with …

Neanderthals, our closest extinct relatives, lived in western Eurasia from 400,000 years ago
until they went extinct around 40,000 years ago. DNA retrieved from ancient specimens …

Fossil evidence points to an African origin of Homo sapiens from a group called either H.
heidelbergensis or H. rhodesiensis. However, the exact place and time of emergence of H …

Modern humans have large and globular brains that distinguish them from their extinct
Homo relatives. The characteristic globularity develops during a prenatal and early postnatal …

Quantitative shape analysis using geometric morphometrics is based on the statistical
analysis of landmark coordinates. Many structures, however, cannot be quantified using …

The Rise of Homo sapiens provides an unrivalled interdisciplinary introduction to the subject
of hominin cognitive evolution that is appropriate for general audiences and students in …

Previous research has identified morphological differences between the brains of
Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMHs). However, studies using endocasts …

Morphological integration and modularity have become central concepts in evolutionary
biology and geometric morphometrics. This review summarizes the most frequently used …

Thin on the Ground: Neandertal Biology, Archeology and Ecology synthesizes the current
knowledge about our sister species the Neandertals, combining data from a variety of …

Our core hypothesis is that the emergence of our species-specific language-ready brain
ought to be understood in light of the developmental changes expressed at the levels of …