Numbers of animal species react to the natural phenomenon of fire, but only humans have
learnt to control it and to make it at will. Natural fires caused overwhelmingly by lightning are …

The prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) is rising for reasons that are not fully understood. In this
Opinion article, we review the possibility that OA is an evolutionary mismatch disease, which …

Human feet have evolved to facilitate bipedal locomotion, losing an opposable digit that
grasped branches in favor of a longitudinal arch (LA) that stiffens the foot and aids bipedal …

The site of Dmanisi, Georgia, has yielded an impressive sample of hominid cranial and
postcranial remains, documenting the presence of Homo outside Africa around 1.8 million …

The human brain stands out among mammals by being unusually large. The expensive-
tissue hypothesis explains its evolution by proposing a trade-off between the size of the …

The stiff human foot enables an efficient push-off when walking or running, and was critical
for the evolution of bipedalism,,,,–. The uniquely arched morphology of the human midfoot is …

Adaptive explanations for modern human foot anatomy have long fascinated evolutionary
biologists because of the dramatic differences between our feet and those of our closest …

The rigidity of the human foot is often described as a feature of our evolution for upright
walking and is bolstered by a thick plantar aponeurosis that connects the heel to the toes …

Humans stand out among the apes by having both an extremely large brain and a relatively
high reproductive output, which has been proposed to be a consequence of cooperative …

Issues of early fire use have become topical in human evolution, after a long period in which
fire scarcely featured in general texts. Interest has been stimulated by new archaeological …