A study of bone strength is providing new evidence about human evolution, according to Phys.org. The outlet reported the findings on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.
The Keck School of Medicine of USC also covered the research, describing it as a study of bone strength that offers new clues about how humans evolved. Neither report included the full methods or results.
Separately, Sci.News reported on fossil evidence suggesting that early Homo had stopped climbing trees by roughly 1.8 million years ago. That finding speaks to a long-standing question about when hominins shifted away from life in the trees toward a more ground-based existence.
Bone structure is one line of evidence researchers use to examine that shift. Bones respond to the loads placed on them, so the strength and shape of fossil remains can hint at how an individual moved and what demands its body faced. The three reports appeared together in the same news summary, though it is not clear from the available material whether they cover the same study or related ones.
The reports as summarized do not name the researchers, the journal, or the specific fossils examined, and no figures from the bone strength work were provided.
What to watch: fuller publication of the bone strength findings, which should clarify the sample studied and how it bears on the timing of the tree-climbing transition.