Somewhere between 2% and 19% of the genetic ancestry carried by present-day West African populations traces back to an ...

“Before the last glacial period, Neanderthals had diverse maternal lineages. As ice sheets advanced and habitable territory shrank, survivors appear to have concentrated in a climate refugium in ...

Every human face is unique, allowing us to distinguish between individuals. We know little about how facial features are encoded in our DNA, but we may be able to learn more about how our faces ...

An international team of cave explorers has shown that cave walls and the prehistoric rock art that adorns them can preserve human DNA for thousands of years.

A tiny portion of the human genome may have had a surprisingly large impact on our ability to develop language. New research suggests these genetic sequences were already present before modern humans ...

A deeper understanding of how DNA changes over generations helps scientists learn why people differ and how diseases develop. Until recently, many fast-changing parts of the human genome remained ...

Most people alive today carry fragments of Neanderthal DNA in their genome. Now scientists are gaining a more intimate understanding of the ancient encounters that put it there. By Carl Zimmer One of ...

Humans are closely related to chimpanzees and bonobos, but what are the key factors that make humans genetically different? A new study looks at the process of DNA methylation, in which chemical tags ...