On Valentine’s Day in 2018, a team of scientists walked across a flat expanse in the badlands of northeastern Ethiopia, scanning the ground for fossils. An eagle-eyed field assistant, Omar Abdulla, ...

An international study changes the view that exposure to the toxic metal lead is largely a post-industrial phenomenon. The research reveals that our human ancestors were periodically exposed to lead ...

(Reuters) -In 1990, an ancient human skull was unearthed in China's Hubei Province that was so badly deformed during fossilization that it was hard to gauge its significance. A new analysis now ...

He lived hundreds of thousands of years ago, eking out an existence in what is today central China. Sporting a squat neck and a big brain, he likely wielded tools made of stone and hunted or scavenged ...

Modern genomes preserve traces of ancient relatives that mixed with human ancestors in Africa and Eurasia.

Ancient humans crossing the Bering Strait into the Americas carried more than tools and determination—they also carried a genetic legacy from Denisovans, an extinct human relative. A new study reveals ...

The study has found genetic evidence that modern humans have inherited DNA from two previously unidentified extinct populations for which there are at present no known fossils.

Successful matings between anatomically modern humans migrating from Africa, Neanderthals, Denisovans and “ghost lineages” all contributed to the contemporary human genome.

This article predates Brown Brothers Media’s ownership of Science Blog and has not been reviewed under our current editorial process. It is preserved as part of the publication’s archive. Panel a ...

A groundbreaking international study changes the view that exposure to the toxic metal lead is largely a post-industrial phenomenon. The research reveals that our human ancestors were periodically ...