Scientists used mtDNA to confirm what many researchers had long suspected: the Chinese “dragon man” Harbin skull belonged to ...

In the last decade, archaeologists have learned to read the genetic traces that ancient humans and Neanderthals left not only ...

Human evolution’s biggest mystery, which emerged 15 years ago from a 60,000-year-old pinkie finger bone, finally started to unravel in 2025.

Here are 10 major findings about human ancestors and our close ancient relatives that scientists announced in 2025. A handful ...

Revolutionary fossil evidence from Ethiopia is challenging decades of scientific consensus about human origins. New discoveries suggest that the famous Lucy fossil, long considered a direct ancestor ...

Ancient DNA is turning Europe’s deep past from a sketch into a family album. Instead of guessing who first called the ...

These genomes are the oldest yet found of modern humans in Europe, though they were not the first hominids to walk these ...

After surviving for nearly 400,000 years across Eurasia, Neanderthals vanished some 40,000 years ago, just as Homo sapiens began to spread across the continent. A recent study now suggests that their ...

(THE CONVERSATION) Dogs were the first of any species that people domesticated, and they have been a constant part of human life for millennia. Domesticated species are the plants and animals that ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Audrey T. Lin, Smithsonian Institution and Logan Kistler, Smithsonian Institution (THE ...