Natural selection has long been considered the driving force behind human evolution. But a landmark study of 87 fossil skulls spanning the past two million years suggests the story is far more complex ...

The familiar claim about humans evolving from apes leaves out an important part of the story. Fossils and DNA reveal a much ...

Something about a warm, flickering campfire draws in modern humans. Where did that uniquely human impulse come from? How did our ancestors learn to make fire? How long have they been making it?

A just-published article in the journal Nature—“Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia,” (Akbari et al, 15 April 2026)—describes how the development of agriculture in ...

For decades, scientists believed ancient humans avoided dense rainforests, treating them as nearly impossible environments for early survival. But a groundbreaking discovery in West Africa is ...

A new Yale-led study provides one of the most detailed and comprehensive analyses to date of genetic variation in human populations in Oceania, filling a major gap in representation in genomics ...

An artist's interpretation of an early human ancestor striking flint on a piece of iron pyrite. Craig Williams, The Trustees of the British Museum Archaeologists were digging at a site in England when ...