Bacteria that live in the digestive tracts of animals may influence the adaptive trajectories of their hosts.

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.

Genetic evidence points to individuals from South America having possibly floated on a raft to Polynesian islands about 500 years before Europeans navigated there.

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

Researchers discover a fragment of cord between 41,000 and 52,000 years old that points to Neanderthals’ complex cognitive abilities.

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

Watch Reading Frames author Peter Rhys-Evans and documentarian Sir David Attenborough discuss the book The Waterside Ape and the impact it may have on our understanding of human evolution.

In Chapter 11, “Surfer’s Ear,” author Peter Rhys-Evans describes a key piece of evidence he says supports his hypothesis of a brief period of semi-aquatic living in early hominins.

Meet some of the people featured in the April 2020 issue of The Scientist.

A recent book outlines fossil evidence supporting the controversial hypothesis.

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.

Mitochondrial DNA and other factors place our ancestors in southern Africa 200,000 years ago.

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

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