Fossils unearthed in Ethiopia are reshaping our view of human evolution. Instead of a straight march from ape-like ancestors to modern humans, researchers now see a tangled, branching tree with ...

Long before humans spread across the globe, a deadly disease may have quietly shaped where our ancestors lived—and even how we evolved. New research reveals that malaria didn’t just threaten early ...

Scientists have pushed back LUCA’s origin by hundreds of millions of years.

In 2001, researchers unearthed a scattering of fossils beneath the windswept dunes of the Djurab Desert of northern Chad. The remains were later identified as belonging to an extinct species, ...

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, ...

Looks can be deceiving -- Many trees in the forest : the DNA quest to find our closest ape relative -- The great divorce : how and when did humans and chimpanzees part ways? -- A population crash in ...

The evolutionary case for eating meat is etched into human anatomy — but so is the case against it. The science deserves more ...

When we think of lead poisoning, most of us imagine modern human-made pollution, paint, old pipes, or exhaust fumes. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest sci-tech news updates. But our new study ...

Smithsonian paleoanthropologists reveal the year’s most riveting findings about our close relatives and ancestors A team led by Laurits Skov and Benjamin Peter from the Max Planck Institute for ...

When the hot summer weather kicks in you may find yourself feeling concerned about furry pets and other animals we live close by to. But fur and hair are ancient adaptations that allowed human ...