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

Recent fossil finds could mean that "Lucy" wasn't our direct ancestor, some scientists say. Others strongly disagree. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Fossils unearthed in Morocco are the first from a little-understood period of human evolution and may be remains of a ...

Researchers found that ancient hominids—including early humans—were exposed to lead throughout childhood, leaving chemical traces in fossil teeth. Experiments suggest this exposure may have driven ...

The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, the biological blueprints that make humans … well, human. But it turns out that some of our DNA — about 8% — are the remnants of ancient viruses ...

Jawbones and other remains, similar to specimens found in Europe, were dated to 773,000 years and help close a gap in ...

Scientists working in Ethiopia's Afar Region have made discoveries that rewrite our understanding of early human history. For ...

An ancient skull unearthed in China’s Hubei Province may push back the emergence of the human species by 400,000 years Peerapon Boonyakiat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty A human skull found in 1990 ...

This is an extract from Our Human Story, our newsletter about the revolution in archaeology. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every month. If I tried to recap all the new fossils, new methods and ...

The Indigenous peoples of the Bolivian highlands are survivors. For thousands of years they have lived at altitudes of more than two miles, where oxygen is about 35 percent lower than at sea level.