It's been a busy month in the world of archaeology and anthropology. The biggest news came from Siberia, where researchers managed to extract and analyze DNA from a 90,000-year-old bone. Turns out this is the first individual ever discovered to have parents of two different species—a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.
Some other interesting stories: What headlines got wrong about a new study on Homo erectus and its adaptive techniques. How experimental archaeology is teaching scientists more about the environments and tools of California's early inhabitants. Using tree rings to date a volcanic eruption in Greece. A fossil previously believed to belong to a bat actually comes from an ancestor of lemurs, and might rewrite prosimian history. And a massive burial site in Kenya from 5,000 years ago shows how the pastoralist society shared the work of building the monument.
Finally, for the podcast-listeners among us, there's a new series out called "Sapiens: A podcast for everything human." The first episode tackles DNA and genealogy and what makes us us.