Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe. Using advanced analysis based ...

The origins of human language remain mysterious. Are we the only animals truly capable of complex speech? Are Homo sapiens the only hominids who could give detailed directions to a far-off freshwater ...

A new study suggests that the NOVA1 gene may have been a key player in the evolution of human language. By Carl Zimmer Scientists have long struggled to understand how human language evolved. Words ...

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 ...

Two of the traits that set modern humans apart from non-human primates are taller stature and a higher basal metabolic rate. Researchers have identified a genetic variant that contributed to the ...

A collection of bones from Casablanca holds important new clues to the origins of modern humans and Neanderthals.

Deep inside a cave system in Europe, a 60,000‑year‑old assemblage of human remains and artifacts has forced researchers to ...

Ancient bones discovered in a cave in Casablanca, Morocco, could fill in some of the blanks about human evolution. The cave, known as Grotte à Hominidés, contains assemblages of jawbones, teeth, and ...

Many people hold the view that evolution in humans has come to a halt. But while modern medicine and technologies have changed the environment in which evolution operates, many scientists are in ...

Our species, Homo sapiens, has been evolving for more than 300,000 years, but the story of human origins starts much earlier.