Changing climate conditions have been known to foster human evolution throughout history, especially in Africa, where our story first unfolded. However, new research has flipped the script on a common ...

The American Journal of Human Genetics recently published a perspective piece on the need for an equitable and inclusive future for DNA and ancient DNA (aDNA) research in Africa. The paper highlights ...

Ancient DNA is finally putting hard numbers on a mystery that has trailed humanity for millennia: when our most familiar ...

Recent archaeological findings in the Sahara Desert have unveiled a tantalizing glimpse into a long-lost lineage of ancient ...

Learn how genomes from 28 ancient individuals show that Homo sapiens lived in southern Africa in near isolation for hundreds of millennia — preserving rare genetic variants that still exist today. A ...

Every person alive on the planet today is descended from people who lived as hunter-gatherers in Africa. People took shelter in natural rock overhangs, leaving behind an archaeological record of their ...

Cats were domesticated in North Africa, but spread to Europe only about 2,000 years ago. Earlier reports of “house” cats were ...

Oakhurst rock shelter is an archaeological site near the town of George on the southern coast of South Africa. It is set into a sandstone cliff above a stream in a valley forested by towering old ...

The largest-yet analysis of ancient DNA in Africa, which includes the first ancient DNA recovered from members of the medieval Swahili civilization, has now broken the stalemate about the extent to ...

Many modern histories tend to focus on ancient kingdoms and empires around the Mediterranean and in the Fertile Crescent. But Western versions of history tend to overlook the many significant kingdoms ...