Latest news with #HomoSapiens
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
The grisly discovery that shows our ancestors ate children
Human ancestors ate small children 850,000 years ago, a gruesome discovery has shown. Archaeologists working at the Gran Dolina cave site in Burgos, northern Spain, found a human neck bone belonging to a child aged between two and four years old, with clear butchery marks. The vertebra was found with other bones and teeth belonging to Homo Antecessor, considered to be the last common ancestor of both Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals, and who lived between 1.2 million and 800,000 years ago. Although cannibalism is well documented in early humans, experts say it is unusual to find a child being eaten and it marks the earliest evidence of the practice found to date. The site of the marks on the neck bone suggests the youngster was decapitated. 'This case is particularly striking, not only because of the child's age, but also due to the precision of the cut marks,' said Dr Palmira Saladié, the co-director of the Gran Dolina excavation of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution. 'The vertebra presents clear incisions at key anatomical points for disarticulating the head. It is direct evidence that the child was processed like any other prey.' Other adult bones belonging to Homo Antecessor found at the site show evidence of defleshing marks and intentional fractures, similar to those found on animal bones consumed by humans. Experts say it suggests that 'early humans exploited their peers as a food resource' and may also have used cannibalism as a method of controlling territory. Homo Antecessor is the earliest human to move into Europe and was given the species name antecessor because it means 'pioneer' or 'early settler' in Latin. It was of stockier build than modern humans, with males ranging in height from 5.2ft to 5.9ft, but had some modern facial features, such as a hollowed cheekbones and a projecting nose, unlike earlier hominids. The earliest evidence of human cannibalism dates back to 1.45 million years where a butchered Homo Erectus bone was found in northern Kenya and it is likely the practice existed until relatively recently. Some archaeologists suggest that before formal burials, human populations would eat the dead as a funerary ritual. At Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, human skulls were found that appeared to have been used as cups, dating from 15,000 years ago. Gnawed human bones were also excavated from the same period. Experts believe that, during the Ice Age, cannibalism would have been a good way of finding food in tough times while also removing rival groups and ritually absorbing their power. Hundreds of stone tools have been discovered previously at Gran Dolina, as well as human bones showing evidence of human chewing. 'What we are documenting now is the continuity of that behaviour: the treatment of the dead was not exceptional, but repeated,' added Dr Saladié, a specialist in prehistoric cannibalism. 'Every year we uncover new evidence that forces us to rethink how our ancestors lived, how they died, and how the dead were treated nearly a million years ago.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Solve the daily Crossword
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Science
- Telegraph
The grisly discovery that shows our ancestors ate children
Human ancestors ate small children 850,000 years ago, a gruesome discovery has shown. Archaeologists working at the Gran Dolina cave site in Burgos, northern Spain, found a human neck bone belonging to a child aged between two and four years old, with clear butchery marks. The vertebra was found with other bones and teeth belonging to Homo Antecessor, considered to be the last common ancestor of both Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals, and who lived between 1.2 million and 800,000 years ago. Although cannibalism is well documented in early humans, experts say it is unusual to find a child being eaten and it marks the earliest evidence of the practice found to date. The site of the marks on the neck bone suggests the youngster was decapitated. 'This case is particularly striking, not only because of the child's age, but also due to the precision of the cut marks,' said Dr Palmira Saladié, the co-director of the Gran Dolina excavation of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution. 'The vertebra presents clear incisions at key anatomical points for disarticulating the head. It is direct evidence that the child was processed like any other prey.' Other adult bones belonging to Homo Antecessor found at the site show evidence of defleshing marks and intentional fractures, similar to those found on animal bones consumed by humans. Experts say it suggests that 'early humans exploited their peers as a food resource' and may also have used cannibalism as a method of controlling territory. Homo Antecessor is the earliest human to move into Europe and was given the species name antecessor because it means 'pioneer' or 'early settler' in Latin. It was of stockier build than modern humans, with males ranging in height from 5.2ft to 5.9ft, but had some modern facial features, such as a hollowed cheekbones and a projecting nose, unlike earlier hominids. The earliest evidence of human cannibalism dates back to 1.45 million years where a butchered Homo Erectus bone was found in northern Kenya and it is likely the practice existed until relatively recently. Some archaeologists suggest that before formal burials, human populations would eat the dead as a funerary ritual. At Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, human skulls were found that appeared to have been used as cups, dating from 15,000 years ago. Gnawed human bones were also excavated from the same period. Experts believe that, during the Ice Age, cannibalism would have been a good way of finding food in tough times while also removing rival groups and ritually absorbing their power. Hundreds of stone tools have been discovered previously at Gran Dolina, as well as human bones showing evidence of human chewing. 'What we are documenting now is the continuity of that behaviour: the treatment of the dead was not exceptional, but repeated,' added Dr Saladié, a specialist in prehistoric cannibalism. 'Every year we uncover new evidence that forces us to rethink how our ancestors lived, how they died, and how the dead were treated nearly a million years ago.'
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta delivers eye-popping AI announcement
Meta delivers eye-popping AI announcement originally appeared on TheStreet. Catastrophic forgetting. Don't worry. I am not talking about politics. Catastrophic forgetting is a 'lovely' feature of deep neural networks. They overwrite old knowledge when learning new things. There are different ways to mitigate this, but the problem persists. If this problem were solved, we wouldn't have new papers with new mitigation methods. The most recent one is from July 11, titled "Catastrophic Forgetting Mitigation Through Plateau Phase Activity Profiling." Science still doesn't know how human memory works. I don't even need to discuss different theories about how memories are "stored" in the brain to prove my from a study, Beyond the Pump: A Narrative Study Exploring Heart Memory, should be enough: "Studies indicate that heart transplant recipients may exhibit preferences, emotions, and memories resembling those of the donors, suggesting a form of memory storage within the transplanted organ." What is the next big advancement for AI, artificial hearts? I've already written that there is no intelligence without consciousness, and you can't get consciousness by "building" intelligence. It does not work that way. Alas, I have to admit, forgetting is something that Homo sapiens does have in common with neural networks. Humans forget things too quickly. This is why our civilization works the way it does. Don't get me wrong: I don't hate 'AI'. Google's DeepMind is doing wonderful research on deciphering the way Dolphins communicate, which is a perfect example of how large language models are put to good use. Unfortunately, most companies are super focused on using LLMs to build "real" AI chatbots, which will lead nowhere. One company that has become hellbent on building the best AI in the universe is Meta Platforms. Is Meta panic investing in AI? Don't you hate those horrible buzzwords like quiet quitting, career catfishing, and other cringeworthy horrors of LinkedIn? Well, I have one buzzword for Meta free of charge: panic investing. Meta () thinks the clock is ticking, and some other company might get the holy grail of all tech, such as AGI, superintelligence, or, to be comical, Skynet. Whoever makes that AI will be spared by the Terminators. That is how Meta's investing strategy makes it look. I covered Meta's string of recent investments, which ended with what to me looks like a desperate move. But let's go over that list investment speed shifted gear after Meta invested $14.8 billion in Scale AI and acquired a 49% nonvoting stake. The company poached big AI names like Alexandr Wang, Dr. Jack Rae, voice AI expert Johan Schalkwyk, OpenAI researchers Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai. The desperate move was hiring Apple's executive in charge of AI models, Ruoming Pang. Meta isn't stopping; if anything, it is shifting gears again and investing even more. Zuckerberg can't stand Musk having a bigger supercomputer Mark Zuckerberg posted his plan for superintelligence on Threads and Facebook on Monday. "We're also going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into compute to build superintelligence. We have the capital from our business to do this," said Zuckerberg in his message. Zuckerberg also said that Meta is building several multi-GW clusters. The first one, Prometheus, is supposed to go online next year. That is an interesting name choice, but it is a bit ominous. At least it isn't Skynet. More AI Stocks: Veteran fund manager raises eyebrows with latest Meta Platforms move Google plans major AI shift after Meta's surprising $14 billion move Analysts revamp forecast for Nvidia-backed AI stock According to Tom's Hardware, Elon Musk's xAI is buying an overseas power plant and shipping it to the U.S. xAI's new data center is supposed to be powered by one million GPUs and up to 2 Gigawatts of power under one roof, which could power almost 2 million homes. It looks like Zuckerberg needed to top this, so he also announced that Meta is building Hyperion, which will be able to scale up to 5GW over several years. So, I guess that will consume power for about 4.75 million homes. Nice, but why stop there? "We're building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan," said Zuckerberg. If this pace continues, Meta should announce a supercomputer covering a Rhode Island-sized area before the end of the delivers eye-popping AI announcement first appeared on TheStreet on Jul 15, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared. Sign in to access your portfolio
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Not just Homo Sapiens: There were 20+ human species that walked the Earth with the modern man; Where are they now?
Once, Earth was home to diverse human species, not just Homo sapiens. Fossil evidence reveals at least 21 early human species, including Neanderthals and Denisovans, coexisted and even interbred with our ancestors. While the reasons for their extinction remain a mystery, factors like climate change, competition, and interbreeding likely played roles. Modern humans are often seen as the pinnacle of evolution and the only ones to have grown and developed over centuries. But in evolutionary terms, not long ago, we shared the planet with a number of other human species. These ancient relatives were not just distant ancestors but our contemporaries, walking the Earth at the same time with our ancestors, even in the same places. They lived, adapted, created tools, even interacted and had children with us. The picture of human evolution is not a straight line from primitive to modern but rather a tangled tree with many branches, where some of these branches ended in extinction and others merged. But who are the other types of human species that walked along the ancestors of the Homo Sapiens, and why couldn't they survive till today? A crowded family tree For most of human history, Homo sapiens weren't alone. Fossil evidence shows that at least 21 species of early humans once roamed the Earth. These included well-known relatives like Neanderthals, as well as Homo Naledi and Homo Luzonensis, as suggested by recent fossil discoveries. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Could Be the Best Time to Trade Gold in 5 Years IC Markets Learn More Undo Among these, some species lasted millions of years, while others were short-lived experiments in survival. The modern Homo Sapiens didn't just follow other human species; they overlapped with them. Homo sapiens lived alongside Neanderthals and Denisovans, sometimes for thousands of years. In some regions, they shared regional tools and even genes. Interbreeding between Homo sapiens and these relatives left traces in the DNA, especially in populations today outside Africa. These weren't short-lived events; they were complex interactions between intelligent, adaptable beings trying to survive a shifting world. In fact, any of these species wasn't alone; they were part of a larger and connected human world. The mystery of the missing species Despite advances in archaeology and genetics, many early human species remain a mystery. Some are known only from a few bones or teeth, like the Denisovans, for example, whose full skeleton has not been found till date. Instead, their story is put together from fragments and DNA. Scientists continue to debate how many species truly existed, since definitions of "species" can vary. Did they look different enough? Could they have kids together? These uncertainties mean the real number of human species might be far higher than 21. Why could only one species make it to today? The reasons aren't fully clear. It could be that they were more adaptable, better at cooperating, or just luckier. Climate change, competition for resources, and even disease may have wiped out other human species. Some were already disappearing when we arrived. Others may have blended into our gene pool through interbreeding. But there is one certainty that survival wasn't guaranteed; Homo Sapiens' today came at the cost of other lost human lineages.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV: Are your neighbours Neanderthals? They really were 300,000 years ago
Before the wheel, before language and art, before farming or anything else that made us civilised, mankind invented the Neighbours From Hell. Ella Al-Shamahi, tracing the development of Homo sapiens across 300,000 years of prehistory in the first of a five-part series, Human, discovered two caves on the side of Mount Carmel in Israel. In one, called Skhul cave, the remains of early modern humans similar to ourselves have been found. In the other, known as Tabun cave, Neanderthal fossils have been uncovered. 'We don't know if they interacted,' Dr Al-Shamahi said. 'But we do know that while Neanderthals remained in the region, all traces of this group of Homo sapiens vanished.' It's pretty obvious the two families didn't get on. I'm guessing the Neanderthals left all kinds of rubbish strewn around their cave — half-eaten antelopes, bits of rubble, general detritus. Their kids probably ran around without any furs on, and on Saturday night, their teenagers stayed up till all hours banging rocks together. This nightmare must have dragged on for years. The Homo sapiens tribe put their cave on the market, but no one was buying... so in the end, they gave up and left. I'm speculating, of course, but that's the fun of ancient anthropology. Dr Al-Shamahi indulged in some guesswork herself, at another cave in Botswana, where a hoard of stone tools was discovered next to a rocky outcrop that resembled, in some lights, a snake. The flints, she suggested, could have been 'offerings' — implying the snake was worshipped as a god. It seems perfectly feasible: no doubt, families of Homo sapiens across half the planet were praying, 'Dear Lord Snake, please smite the Neanderthals next-door, or at least get them to stop banging those bloody rocks together.' Inevitably, much of the evidence about human evolution is based on fragments, with scientists building their theories from scattered finds and the odd bone. A handful of tiny shells with traces of red ochre was proof enough for Dr Al-Shamahi to suggest that people were wearing beads as jewellery, up to 70,000 years ago. To help us envisage this, soft-focus scenes of our nomadic ancestors were shot against gorgeous sunsets and wild African landscapes. Much of this photography was absolutely sumptuous, with the human figures picked out in blurred silhouettes. It was hard to see exactly what was going on, but the end credits listed an 'intimacy co-ordinator', so perhaps we should be grateful for the soft-focus. BBC science shows can sometimes become overloaded with information, but this was well-paced, giving us a chance to enjoy the stunning pictures while mulling over what we'd just learned. Though she has presented documentaries before, on the ancient Egyptians and other lost civilisations, this is Ella Al-Shamahi's first landmark series, and she handled it confidently: informative without being didactic, awed without being pretentious.
