Researchers found the relatively high proportion of DNA from a hominin cousin—nearly 5 percent—when they scanned more than 1,000 genomes from 118 distinct ethnic groups.

A massive, well-preserved skull discovered in China in the 1930s belongs to a new species called Homo longi, researchers report, but experts remain skeptical about the evidence.

A selective advantage may have led the modern human Y chromosome to sweep through the Neanderthal population after it was introduced via interbreeding more than 100,000 years ago.

Africa’s sparse fossil record alone cannot reveal our species’ evolutionary history.

Modern human genomes and bones left behind from ancient hominins in Africa tell a complex story about the origins of our species.

A tooth and six bone fragments are the oldest confirmed Homo sapiens fossils in Europe.

An analysis of fossilized teeth sheds light on the evolutionary relationships between Pleistocene hominins.

A study points to the existence of an ancient human relative that interbred with Homo sapiens.

Researchers’ simulations suggest that small population sizes and inbreeding made Neanderthal populations vulnerable to chance fluctuations in population size.

The 12-million-year-old bones of a previously unknown species named Danuvius guggenmosi challenge the prevailing view about when and where our ancestors first started walking upright.

From skin color to immunity, human biology is linked to our archaic ancestry.

The astronomical idea doesn’t align well with the fossil record, anthropologists argue, but the origins of bipedalism are still difficult to determine.

See when and where our ancestors may have interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Sequences from dozens of ancient remains from Siberia reveal the closest ancient relative of Native Americans found outside of North America.

Fossil records show that the most recent shared ancestor with modern humans may have lived at least 800,000 years ago.

A mandible dating to 160,000 years ago is the first evidence of Denisovan hominins outside the Russian cave where they were first discovered in 2010.

The dating of stone tools in China puts members of the Homo genus there more than 2 million years ago.

The function of early hominins’ enlarged brow ridges, and their reduction in size in Homo sapiens, have puzzled paleoanthropologists for decades.

Three members of a gene family called NOTCH2NL may have been involved in the evolution of humans’ big cortex.