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We challenge the view that our species, Homo sapiens, evolved within a single population and/or region of Africa. The chronology and physical diversity of Pleistocene human fossils suggest that morphologically varied populations pertaining to the H. sapiens clade lived throughout Africa. Similarly, the African archaeological record demonstrates the polycentric origin and persistence of regionally distinct Pleistocene material culture in a variety of paleoecological settings. Genetic studies also indicate that present-day population structure within Africa extends to deep times, paralleling a paleoenvironmental record of shifting and fractured habitable zones. We argue that these fields support an emerging view of a highly structured African prehistory that should be considered in human evolutionary inferences, prompting new interpretations, questions , and interdisciplinary research directions. International audience

The Acheulean is the longest lasting cultural–technological tradition in human evolutionary history. However, considerable gaps remain in understanding the chronology and geographical distribution of Acheulean hominins. We present the first chronometrically dated Acheulean site from the Arabian Peninsula, a vast and poorly known region that forms more than half of Southwest Asia. Results show that Acheulean hominin occupation expanded along hydrological networks into the heart of Arabia from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 until at least ~190 ka ̶ the youngest documented Acheulean in Southwest Asia. The site of Saffaqah features Acheulean technology, characterized by large flakes, handaxes and cleavers, similar to Acheulean assemblages in Africa. These findings reveal a climatically-mediated later Acheulean expansion into a poorly known region, amplifying the documented diversity of Middle Pleistocene hominin behaviour across the Old World and elaborating the terminal archaic landscape encountered by our species as they dispersed out of Africa. peer-reviewed

The transition from hunting and gathering to food producing economies in Arabia took the form of a shift to mobile pastoralism. Domestic livestock appears to have been introduced in the 7th millennium BCE (Drechsler 2007), when northern Arabia experienced ameliorated environments during the Holocene wet phase (Engel et al. 2012; Dinies et al. 2015). However, crop cultivation and other features traditionally 2 used to define the Neolithic do not seem to have been practised until the Bronze Age (see for example Magee 2014, Preston et al. 2012). This is in stark contrast to the Fertile Crescent, where the Neolithisation process was set in motion by increasingly sedentary groups, culminating in the control and domestication of both plants and animals (Bar-Yosef 2001). The architectural remains of sedentary communities - dwellings, storage facilities, and communal property - are highly visible in the archaeological record and have become iconic for the Neolithic of the Levant. In the ecologically more marginal areas of the Jordanian Badia, Neolithic communities adapted other economic strategies. Here, settlements were occupied seasonally, and subsistence was based on caprine herding, supplemented by hunting and opportunistic agriculture. Nevertheless, architectural remains attest to the construction and use of substantial dwellings throughout the Neolithic (Henry et al. 2003, Martin & Edwards 2013; Rollefson et al. 2014; 2016). peer-reviewed

The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant shift in human technological, cultural, and cognitive evolution. However, the majority of research on this transition is currently focused on southern Africa due to a lack of long-term, stratified sites across much of the African continent. Here, we report a 78,000-year-long archeological record from Panga ya Saidi, a cave in the humid coastal forest of Kenya. Following a shift in toolkits ~67,000 years ago, novel symbolic and technological behaviors assemble in a non-unilinear manner. Against a backdrop of a persistent tropical forest-grassland ecotone, localized innovations better characterize the Late Pleistocene of this part of East Africa than alternative emphases on dramatic revolutions or migrations. Aquest article té una correcció a 10.1038/s41467-018-04753-0

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by reduced lung function and is the third leading cause of death globally. Through genome-wide association discovery in 48,943 individuals, selected from extremes of the lung function distribution in UK Biobank, and follow-up in 95,375 individuals, we increased the yield of independent signals for lung function from 54 to 97. A genetic risk score was associated with COPD susceptibility (odds ratio per 1 s.d. of the risk score (similar to 6 alleles) (95% confidence interval) = 1.24 (1.20-1.27), P = 5.05 x 10(-49)), and we observed a 3.7-fold difference in COPD risk between individuals in the highest and lowest genetic risk score deciles in UK Biobank. The 97 signals show enrichment in genes for development, elastic fibers and epigenetic regulation pathways. We highlight targets for drugs and compounds in development for COPD and asthma (genes in the inositol phosphate metabolism pathway and CHRM3) and describe targets for potential drug repositioning from other clinical indications.