Long before genetic testing and genome browsers, a small child was laid to rest in a shallow grave on the slopes of Mount Carmel, in what is now Israel. Today that youngster, known as Skhūl, is at the ...

Africa has long been known as the cradle of humanity. Fossils, tools and genetics all point there. Yet the deeper story of how the first modern humans lived, moved and mixed has stayed blurry. Too ...

Modern humans are evolutionary survivors, thriving generation after generation while our ancient relatives died out. Now, new research into our brain chemistry suggests that an enzyme unique to Homo ...

The human genome is a rich, complex record of migration, encounters, and inheritance written over thousands of millennia.

The textbook assumption is that when the first modern humans arrived in Europe, around 45,000 years ago, they quickly evolved pale skin to adapt to the region’s dimmer sunlight relative to Africa. The ...

Momentous encounters -- Neanderthal ancestors -- Neanderthals and their world -- The quiet people -- The ten thousandth grandmother -- Great mobility -- The realm of the Lion Man -- Fat, flints, and ...

Most people today have a little Neanderthal DNA sprinkled through their genome. Exactly what these interactions looked like is a mystery, but a new study suggests that when our species and ...