Human Evolution Research Articles

Leveraging ancient DNA to uncover signals of natural selection in Europe lost due to admixture or drift

AbstractLarge ancient DNA (aDNA) studies offer the chance to examine genomic changes over time, providing direct insights into human evolution. While recent studies have used time-stratified aDNA for selection scans, most focus on single-locus methods. We conducted a multi-locus genotype scan on 708 samples spanning 7000 years of European history. We show that the G12 statistic, originally designed for unphased diploid data, can effectively detect selection in aDNA processed to create ‘pseudo-haplotypes’. In simulations and at known positive control loci (e.g., lactase persistence), G12 outperforms the allele frequency-based selection statistic, SweepFinder2, previously used on aDNA. Applying our approach, we identified 14 candidate regions of selection across four time periods, with half the signals detectable only in the earliest period. Our findings suggest that selective events in European prehistory, including from the onset of animal domestication, have been obscured by neutral processes like genetic drift and demographic shifts such as admixture.

Transforming Cybersecurity Infrastructure : A Multi-dimensional Approach to Risk, Culture, and Technological Integration

The rapid acceleration of digital transformation has exposed critical limitations in traditional cybersecurity approaches, particularly in their reactive nature and disconnection from broader organizational strategies. This article critically examines current cybersecurity practices in IT infrastructure management, identifying significant gaps in the integration of security measures with business objectives, organizational culture, and emerging technologies. Through a mixed-method analysis of industry practices and empirical data from multiple case studies, The article proposes a comprehensive framework that transcends conventional security paradigms. The article introduces a proactive, risk-based approach that integrates cultural transformation, emerging technologies, and resilience building while fostering strategic partnerships across stakeholder groups. Initial implementation across various organizational contexts demonstrates significant improvements in security posture, incident response times, and overall business alignment. The findings contribute to both theoretical understanding and practical application of integrated cybersecurity management, offering valuable insights for practitioners and researchers in the field of IT security and organizational resilience. This article addresses a critical gap in current literature by providing a holistic approach that aligns cybersecurity initiatives with organizational transformation while considering human factors and technological evolution.

Human socio-technical evolution through the lens of an abstracted-wheel experiment: A critical look at a micro-society laboratory study

Micro-society experimental setups are increasingly used to infer aspects of human behavioural evolution. A key part of human society today is our dependence on, and use of, technology–whether simple (such as a knife) or complex (such as the technology that underpins AI). Previously, two groups of researchers used an abstracted-wheel experiment to explore the evolution of human technical behaviour, reaching fundamentally different outcomes. Whereas one group saw their results as indicating social learning only (void of causal understanding), the other inferred non-social technical reasoning as part of human technical behaviour. Here we report on the third generation of the micro-society abstracted-wheel experiment. We argue that causal reasoning is inseparable from both social learning and technical reasoning, and that these traits probably co-evolved into the current human socio-technical niche. Based on our outcomes, we present a critical assessment of what this experiment may (or may not) reveal about the evolution of human technical behaviour. We show that the abstracted-wheel experiment reflects behavioural output only, instead of testing for cognition. It is therefore limited in its ability to inform on aspects of human cognitive evolution, but it can provide useful insights into the interrelatedness of social learning, technical reasoning, and causal reasoning. Such a co-evolutionary insight has the potential to inform on aspects of human socio-technical evolution throughout the Pleistocene.

Stay social, stay young: a bioanthropological outlook on the processes linking sociality and ageing

AbstractIn modern human societies, social interactions and pro-social behaviours are associated with better individual and collective health, reduced mortality, and increased longevity. Conversely, social isolation is a predictor of shorter lifespan. The biological processes through which sociality affects the ageing process, as well as healthspan and lifespan, are still poorly understood. Unveiling the physiological, neurological, genomic, epigenomic, and evolutionary mechanisms underlying the association between sociality and longevity may open new perspectives to understand how lifespan is determined in a broader socio/evolutionary outlook. Here we summarize evidence showing how social dynamics can shape the evolution of life history traits through physiological and genetic processes directly or indirectly related to ageing and lifespan. We start by reviewing theories of ageing that incorporate social interactions into their model. Then, we address the link between sociality and lifespan from two separate points of view: (i) considering evidences from comparative evolutionary biology and bioanthropology that demonstrates how sociality contributes to natural variation in lifespan over the course of human evolution and among different human groups in both pre-industrial and post-industrial society, and (ii) discussing the main physiological, neurological, genetic, and epigenetic molecular processes at the interface between sociality and ageing. We highlight that the exposure to chronic social stressors deregulates neurophysiological and immunological pathways and promotes accelerated ageing and thereby reducing lifespan. In conclusion, we describe how sociality and social dynamics are intimately embedded in human biology, influencing healthy ageing and lifespan, and we highlight the need to foster interdisciplinary approaches including social sciences, biological anthropology, human ecology, physiology, and genetics.

Carl Sagan and libraries: An original thinker remembered

This article considers the legacy of astronomer Carl Sagan (1934–1996), whose book The Dragons of Eden presents a complete etiology of the library in the context of human evolution. Essential to Sagan's theory of the origins of the library is the concept of extrasomatic information, or knowledge stored outside the body. Surprising evidence on behalf of Sagan's theory has been presented in recent years by Nobel-Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel and others: that the human brain has not significantly grown for 50,000 years, presumably not due to evolutionary stagnation, but because cultural evolution has superseded biological evolution in Homo sapiens, an advance which has led to us becoming the dominant species on Earth.

Cut a Tree, Cut a Man: Charcoal Production as a Bane to Green Economy in Nigeria

Symbiotically speaking, cutting a tree is akin to cutting a man or any of its counterparts in the animal kingdom. Besides solar energy, heat energy's role in humans’ daily life calls for its taming, artificial ignition, and fuelling of same for its reuse as and when due. Hence, humans’ ability to ignite and fuel fire marked a significant achievement in human evolution. Meanwhile, wood was the most traditional source of fuel in human history, which is, mainly, of two forms: firewood and charcoal. Dried wood was the common source of fuel for domestic cooking and commercial use both in the rural and urban areas in the primitive era. Although, firewood has relatively little burden on nature, charcoal, which has more adverse effects on the environment, is now taking over. Sadly, the discovery of better alternative sources such as LPG and electricity could not bring about a remarkable shift in many developing nations, including Nigeria, despite their efficiency. Taking expository and critical analysis methodologies, this paper argues that wood-fuelling hinders the achievement of the green economy in Africa, and it persists for many reasons; poor state of electricity, unavailability and/or unaffordability of the LPG, poverty, poor environmental awareness, unsophisticated and poor enforcement of environmental laws and lack of compensation for the conservators among others. In addition to the ever-suggested solutions, this paper recommends a ‘carrot and cane' system. By this, the offenders should not only be accordingly penalised but also the conservers be compensated duly. It also recommends the use of briquettes as viable alternatives.

From stone tools to fMRI, studying human cognitive evolution when the mind doesn't fossilize

From stone tools to fMRI, studying human cognitive evolution when the mind doesn't fossilize

A history of multiple Denisovan introgression events in modern humans.

The identification of a new hominin group in the Altai mountains called Denisovans was one of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution in the last decade. Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists of only a finger bone, jawbone, teeth and skull fragments. Leveraging the surviving Denisovan segments in modern human genomes has uncovered evidence of at least three introgression events from distinct Denisovan populations into modern humans in the past. Each of them presents different levels of relatedness to the sequenced Altai Denisovan, indicating a complex relationship between these sister lineages. Here we review the evidence suggesting that several Denisovan populations, who likely had an extensive geographical range, were adapted to distinct environments and introgressed into modern humans multiple times. We further discuss how archaic variants have been affected by demographic history, negative and positive selection and close by proposing possible new lines of future research.

Mental disorders may prevent, not cause, suicide.

We challenge a prevalent belief that depression causes suicide and propose that certain symptoms of depression and other psychopathologies may function to prevent lethal self-injury. Theoretical and empirical evidence supports this position. As suicide posed an extreme fitness hazard throughout human evolution, our species evolved special-purpose psychological defences that continuously monitor and manage this danger. Last-ditch protections may present as diverse psychiatric phenomena. Mobilising in adolescence and adulthood in response to chronic distress, these usually stop suicidal thoughts from escalating into deadly actions. The theory is testable. We point to important implications for the clinical management of suicide and psychopathology.

Handedness and the control of human technology and language

The impact of handedness on neural substrates of common tool processing and tool use skills as proxies to the mechanisms underlying modern reciprocal relationships among humans and their brains, the tools they create and use, and technologies they implement and utilise, has only recently started to be elucidated. Yet, as most of the reports on lateralisation of such processing or skills focused on a single task, and sharp divisions of participants into right-, left-, and mixed-handed, or non-righthanded for the latter two groups combined, little is known about interrelationships between the neuronal underpinnings of different skilled manual actions—e.g., manual praxis skills in the form of disparate hand-tool interactions, including their most common neural phenotypes in the population at large. Here, in 62 individuals with different handedness status, we studied the laterality of two praxic abilities involving common tools. Even though their neural substrates were expected to be closely linked, we identified numerous cases (in 7/28 righthanders [RH] – 25%, and in 6/21 lefthanders [LH] – 29% of participants) with hemispheric dissociations in the underlying mechanisms. They involved both right-lateralised functional grasp planning vs. left-lateralised visual tool use (8% of all tested cases, 3/28 RH: ~11%, and 2/21 LH: ~10%), and vice versa (13% of all cases, 4/28 RH: ~14%, and 4/21 LH: ~19% of participants). The laterality/organisation of these praxic skills was also compared to the laterality/organisation of productive language, with only few cases of dissociations identified. The observed phenotypes are discussed in the context of coevolutionary hypotheses linking ancient toolmaking and tool use skills, the associated cultural evolution, technological innovations, and language to the cortical expansion and functional lateralisation in human evolution.

Enhancing high school human evolution education: Harnessing “sapiens: a brief history of humankind” as an effective learning resource

Understanding human evolution can be challenging for students and may lead to misconceptions, often stemming from the learning materials employed. Current learning resources commonly include textbooks, images, and the internet. The popular science book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" offers potential as an educational tool for teaching human evolution. This study aims to assess the suitability of "Sapiens" for high school Biology education and its potential as a resource for teaching human evolution in senior high school. Employing a qualitative descriptive method with a content analysis approach, data is gathered through documentation techniques. Primary data is derived from the documentation and content analysis of "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind." Data analysis follows the model proposed by Miles and Huberman (1983), encompassing data reduction, presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings indicate that the book effectively addresses 7 out of 9 (77.78%) sub-topics of human evolution commonly taught in high school Biology. Importantly, the book replaces outdated terms like Pithecantropus and Megantropus paleojavanicus, found in traditional textbooks. Moreover, the book fulfills the five criteria for selecting learning resources as outlined by Djohar (1987). Consequently, "Sapiens" can serve as a valuable learning resource for high school Biology, particularly regarding the study of human evolution.

Making ourselves understood: Translation as a creative task

Human evolution in groups has given us language. But it has also led to a present where it appears increasingly difficult to understand each other. Language can be used to clarify or to obscure; it can unite or separate. It is as if we speak different languages. (This is written in English as my own second language as a German.) Can thinking about actual linguistic differences help? A foreign language can be a barrier to communication—and learning or translating the language can become a bridge. Similarly, on a personal level (and in psychotherapy), a second language can be used defensively, when it creates a distance to the internal world—and it can be used creatively to rethink it. Group analysis in particular is faced with this dual potential, when members do not all share the same background. Foulkes himself had to struggle with the English language, and (I suggest) turned the challenge into an opportunity for creative new ideas. Foulkes’s concept of translation embodies this creativity and carries it into the group-analytic model. This specific Foulkesian translation originates in the group-analytic situation and goes beyond the polarity of the passively translated and the active translator. The mutual task is unavoidable in our polyphonic international group of GASi.

Recent Research Advancements in Carbon Fiber‐Based Anode Materials for Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Energy consumption is a critical element in human evolution, and rapid advances in science and technology necessitate adequate energy. As human society evades, the advancement of energy storage components has become critical in addressing societal challenges. Lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) are promising candidates for future extensive use as optimal energy storage devices. However, the current limitations of LIBs pose a challenge to their continued dominance. Researchers are constantly exploring new materials to enhance the performance of LIBs, and carbon fiber (CF) is a dominant contender in this pursuit. The high electrical conductivity of carbon‐based materials benefits the battery system by facilitating efficient electron transfer and improving overall performance. CF‐based materials provide enhanced energy storage capacity and cycling stability in LIBs. Progress in carbon‐based materials has resulted in electrodes with increased surface areas, enabling greater rates of charging and discharging. In addition, the exceptional corrosion resistance of CF ensures the durability and robustness of LIBs. A comprehensive review is carried out on the correlation between the material's structure and its electrochemical performance, with a special emphasis on the uses of pure carbon fibers, transition metal oxides, sulfides, and MXene carbon‐based transition metal compounds in LIBs.

Study on the causes and coping strategies of adolescent mental illness

In recent years, especially since the epidemic, there has been an explosive increase in the incidence of adolescent mental disorders, which has aroused the attention of the whole society. From the perspectives of evolution, humanism, and psychodynamics, this paper analyzes the deep-rooted causes of the increasing incidence of psychological disorders in adolescents and explores various dilemmas adolescents face. From an evolutionary point of view, the current rate of social progress exceeds the rate of human evolution and the rate of cognitive improvement of young people, making it difficult for young people to adapt to complex social environments. In humanitarian terms, excessive academic pressure places a heavy burden on young people. From the perspective of psychodynamics, the conflict between standard, ego, and superego can cause mental illness in adolescents. In addition, this paper points out that adolescent mental illness marks the evolution of social awareness of mental health, and all parties in society need to build a supportive policy framework to foster widespread awareness of mental health.

The effectiveness of teaching human evolution to 14-15-year-olds in Slovenia Učinkovitost poučevanja evolucije človeka pri 14-do 15-letnikih v Sloveniji

In Slovenia, human evolution is first taught in biology classes to 14–15-year-old students. For many of them, this will be the only contact with this topic at school. The objective was to determine how much knowledge students acquired about human evolution. Data were collected with a questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale. The participants were 13–14-year-olds who had not yet learned about human evolution (the control group) and 15–16-year-olds who had learned about human evolution one year earlier in biology classes (the experimental group). The results show that students significantly improved their knowledge of human evolution with small to medium effect sizes. Students knew very well that modern humans are the only species of humans today and that they did not live at the same time as dinosaurs. The achievements were low on the following topics: modern humans lived at the same time as Neanderthals and mammoths, and modern humans did not evolve from Neanderthals. To the problematic topics, attention should be paid to teacher education and the primary school curriculum. There were few correlations between the knowledge of human evolution, acceptance of evolution, religiosity, and attitudes toward biology.

Evolutionary Pedagogy: Evolutionary Foundations of Certain Pedagogical Practices and Their Implications in Teaching Processes

Human evolution is the result of highly complex biological, psychological and cultural changes over millions of years. This process can be traced back to the evolution of modern humans, thanks to the ability of human ancestors to adapt to environmental conditions. The evolutionary process involves the development not only of physical characteristics, but also of mental capacities and social structures. It is therefore a natural consequence that evolution has fundamentally influenced human cultural and psychological traits. The main reason for the emergence of fields such as evolutionary psychology and evolutionary psychiatry in the light of recent studies is the search for the contributions of evolutionary processes to such fields. Evolutionary pedagogy is basically the result of such a search. It was shaped as a result of the search for the reflections of psychological and cultural situations affected by evolutionary processes on pedagogy. Therefore, evolutionary pedagogy is a synthesis and it seeks to explain how many pedagogical practices may have been shaped in the evolutionary process. To this end, it draws heavily on evolutionary psychology and directly on human biological evolution. Such a quest for grounding predicts that a more beneficial process can be realized in the teaching-learning process by reproducing evolutionary situations in the classroom environment. In other words, the learning process can become more effective if teachers use the features compatible with evolutionary processes in their teaching techniques, classroom management, and the development of skills for learning to learn, and if they include them in the classroom environment. This is the main starting point of the study. Throughout the study, some examples of the pedagogical practices in which can manifest itself are emphasized. In addition to the explanations and examples given in the study, other researchers may associate different pedagogical practices with evolutionary processes. Therefore, evolutionary pedagogy is not only a new field but also a field that is open to the interest of researchers as a field open to development.

Indian philosophy as a precursor of the string theory of consciousness. Part 2

Introduction. The article examines the formation of the Ancient Indian philosophy and its connection to consciousness. The Indian philosophy has come a long way from its onset, in parallel with the Chinese and Ancient Greek philosophy. At the same time, the ideas of some of its branches and schools differ in a number of features. Purpose setting. By the example of the Sankhya school of philosophy, we have explored the evolution of the views of Ancient Indian philosophers on the evolution of the Universe, nature and man. We have put particular emphasis on the concept of consciousness.Methodology and methods of the study. In Sankhya system, the fundamental Prakriti and Purusha principles are identified. Other elements are supplementary. Ancient philosophers laid special emphasis on the three vibrating gunas. These are sattva, rajas, and tamas. We have revealed the functional connections between the gunas. The way they interact, in balance or dominance, determines the entire variety of material and spiritual processes. The evolution of the Universe in the Sankhya interpretation is close to the scientific theory of the Big Bang. The development of nature can be traced through the complication of atoms starting from the influence of a stimulus on unconscious chaos. The result of human evolution is the emergence of consciousness derivatives: intellect, mind and I (Ego). This allows better understanding of the behavioral characteristics of an existing personality. Yoga complements Sankhya system and makes it possible to transform consciousness in a number of states.Results. The analysis was carried out using scientific articles and monographs relatively unknown in the Russian press. Cognitive development occurs in a spiral. The scientific theory of strings appeared two and a half millennia after the emergence of the gunas concept. We have made a number of analogies between Ancient Indian gunas and contemporary string theory. And have substantiated the theory of consciousness not with quantum theory, but with a deeper string theory. The concept of consciousness is supported in line with the scientific paradigm of T. Kuhn. The leading ideas are the ideas about information of D. Chalmers and the physicist J. Wheeler.Conclusion. Thus, the phenomenon of consciousness has a silicon and biological basis. We insist on using the semantic concept of artificial consciousness instead of artificial intelligence. Therefore, between human consciousness and artificial consciousness there may be dangerous risks of dominance of the latter.

Climatic and environmental changes of ~100 thousand years: The mammals from the early Middle Pleistocene sequence of Notarchirico (southern Italy).

Here we revise all the paleontological sample of Notarchirico, including historical collections and new findings collected during 2016-2023 excavations. Notarchirico is one of the most significant sites for the study of human evolution and terrestrial ecosystem dynamics during the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, preserving nearly 100.000 years of environmental and climatic changes constrained between 695 ± 6 ka and 614 ± 12 ka. The deposit yielded the oldest human fossil of the Italian Peninsula, and one of the oldest European evidence of Homo heidelbergensis, as well as one of the earliest evidence of bifacial tools in western Europe, commonly associated with the Acheulean techno-complex. Our paleontological results revealed the presence of three different mammal complexes, documenting faunal dynamics in response of climatic driven-changes recognized during the early Middle Pleistocene. The lower complex (levels I2-G) indicates the dominance of wooded spaces, sparse steppes, and the existence of water bodies (lakes or ponds), indicating a deterioration of the fully interglacial conditions recorded during the end of MIS 17; the middle complex (levels G-C) with a low number of mammal remains can be attributed to the glacial conditions of MIS 16; the upper complex (levels B-above α) indicates an improvement in climate, transitioning towards the full interglacial conditions of the of MIS 15. The faunal sample of Notarchirico, based on its firm chronological setting, offers important data for the Biochronological Scheme of European Land Mammals, including one of the oldest records of Palaeoloxodon antiquus and Cervus elaphus in Europe, Panthera spelaea in southwestern Europe, Dama cf. roberti in Italian Peninsula, and one of the latest occurrences of Bison schoetensacki in Europe.

The evolutionary origin of human kissing.

A kiss has been a signal of special affection across continents and cultures for millennia. Between times and peoples, social norms invariably prescribe kissing to specific affiliations and contexts, implying deeper biological bases. Why the protruding of the lips and slight suction when touching another? Capuchin monkeys stick their fingers in their friends' eyes as sign of affection, why have humans developed kissing? Here I briefly review proposed hypotheses for the evolution of human kissing. Great ape social behavior suggests that kissing is likely the conserved final mouth-contact stage of a grooming bout when the groomer sucks with protruded lips the fur or skin of the groomed to latch on debris or a parasite. The hygienic relevance of grooming decreased over human evolution due to fur-loss, but shorter sessions would have predictably retained a final "kissing" stage, ultimately, remaining the only vestige of a once ritualistic behavior for signaling and strengthening social and kinship ties in an ancestral ape.

Women, Horses and Dogs. A Reading of Sorana Gurian's Novel from the Animal Studies Perspective

Sorana Gurian's proverbial passion for pets, almost unnoticed in Romanian literary history, deserves a careful analysis, especially because it was directly recognized as and even constituted the foundation of some substantial pages of memoir or fiction prose, written by this cosmopolite, intriguing, and spectacular author, who linked her biographical existence to several Moldavian, Romanian and French spaces. Animals have a completely exceptional importance especially in the novel "The days never come back" (1945) – where the number of animal references is huge (compared to any other Romanian fictional prose, regardless of the era in which they were written). The text contains over two hundred references to dogs and their equivalents from the general semantic field (puppy, whelp), or from the particular one (basset, greyhound, borzoi, fox, etc.), over a hundred references to horses and several hundred other references to cats, rodents (mice, voles, rats, ferrets), birds (from swallows or sparrows to eagles) and insects of various kinds (from crickets to dragonflies). Of all these species, dogs and horses – by far, the protagonists' (Vivian, Ann and her father, nicknamed the Chief) favorites – are frequently particularized even nominally, because from the perspective of the doctor's extended family, they are true friends and communication partners, with rights sometimes superior to servants, acquaintances, or human friends. Far from being perceived as fictional ”commodity objects” or simple tools, used only to build or furnish the narrative world, animals are integrated, to varying degrees, in the families of main characters, they accompany, silently but expressively, their steps – either as partners with equal rights, either as identity doubles or complements – and even reflect, metonymically, the human's narrative evolution. Starting from these premises, my study (which combines elements of gender, trauma, and animal studies) will analyze both the various functions of the numerous elements of bestiary and animal characters, and the provocative stakes of their narrative valorization.