Lab notes: meet the primitive Picassos – our arty ancestors the Neanderthals

This weeks headlines have been full of our ancestors, most prominently the discovery that Neanderthals painted on cave walls in Spain 65,000 years ago - tens of thousands of years before the arrival of modern humans. Some say this made them the first artists on Earth, but Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones has some interesting points to make about that claim. Neanderthals aside, an intriguing theory that Homo erectus may have been a sailor and able to speak has been put forward. Researchers also say that ancient DNA reveals that the arrival of the Beaker folk changed Britain forever. Genetic analysis has shown that at least 90% of the ancestry of Britons was replaced by a wave of migrants, who arrived about 4,500 years ago. Also unpicking the past were some Australian scientists, who say that if you want to know about T rex's locomotion then watching how an ibis moves might just be the key. Another team of antipodean researchers are using 3D scans to try to unlock the evolutionary history of the Tasmanian tiger. Shedding light in a totally different way were scientists who have used synthetic bioluminescent molecules to make brain cells glow so brightly they can be seen outside the body. Used only in animals so far, the luminescence allows researchers to track individual cells in animals with unprecedented accuracy. The future's bright, it seems ...