Did modern humans erase Neanderthals, or did our close cousins fade away for reasons that had little to do with us? A pair of major papers in Science and Nature on Dec. 12, 2024, sharpen that question ...

A complex picture of how Neanderthals died out, and the role that modern humans played in their disappearance, is emerging.

There’s no question that prehistoric hominins had it tougher than we do today, with the dangers of big-game hunting and a lack of modern healthcare stacking the odds of survival against them. It’s ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A series of lower jaws from North Africa demonstrates variation among hominin fossils. The jaw on ...

Many people today simply assume that our evolution has quietly ended with the development of the modern human. It's easy to think that medicine, science, and modern living have made us "perfect" or ...

(CNN) — Modern humans are evolutionary survivors, thriving generation after generation while our ancient relatives died out. Now, new research into our brain chemistry suggests that an enzyme unique ...

The original evolution of hominins (modern humans and their evolutionary ancestors since the split with other great apes) took place in Africa about 7 million years ago, based on the fossil record.

Denisovans, a mysterious human relative, left behind far more than a handful of fossils—they left genetic fingerprints in modern humans across the globe. Multiple interbreeding events with distinct ...

A new Simon Fraser University-led study reveals interbreeding between humans and their ancient cousins, Neanderthals, as the likely origin of a neurological condition estimated to impact up to one per ...

Researchers studied ancient tooth fossils and found that a gene mutation in modern humans (right) better protected them against lead and gave them an advantage over Neanderthals (left). Kyle Dykes / ...

Something about a warm, flickering campfire draws in modern humans. Where did that uniquely human impulse come from? How did our ancestors learn to make fire? How long have they been making it?