Ancestry & Evolution
The desire to understand our origins is primal. By examining our DNA over successive generations through the evolutionary process of inherited characteristics of human and animal populations–as well as from those species from which humans share a common ancestry–we can decipher our individual and collective past and develop medical innovations for the future.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Destructive diets: Are we eating Earth’s large animals to extinction?
In new research published [February 6] in the journal Conservation Letters, scientists surveyed the populations of nearly 300 species of megafauna ...
‘Arrival of the fittest’: Fragile DNA ‘hot spots’ play key role in mutations, evolution
Against the odds, separate species and populations independently evolve the same solutions to life’s challenges, and the same genes are ...
Yes, genes do shape our behavior, but in complicated ways
Are psychological traits definitely determined by genes? ...
Why does human skin color have so much variation?
Human skin color reflects an evolutionary balancing act tens of thousands of years in the making. There’s a convincing explanation ...
Tectonic ‘Origins’: Book examines how Earth’s hills and valleys jumpstarted evolution
In this age of worldwide climatic deterioration, many authors have documented what we are doing to our planet. Lewis Dartnell ...
Tracking Neanderthal DNA in modern humans: There’s been little change in 45,000 years
Neanderthals, modern humans’ closest evolutionary relatives, have been extinct for thousands of years. But due to interbreeding between the two ...
Inside the cave where Neanderthals and Denisovans may have shared a home
Mysterious ancient hominids known as Denisovans and their evolutionary cousins, Neandertals, frequented a southern Siberian cave starting a surprisingly long ...
Were humans superior to Neanderthals? Or just luckier?
Prof Clive Finlayson, director of the Gibraltar Museum, explains why some old assumptions about the intellectual capabilities of our evolutionary ...
Have addictive personalities aided human evolution?
We’re so inundated with bleak facts about addiction that it may be hard to perceive any silver lining. It’s nearly ...
Do we have an undiscovered human ancestor? AI says it’s likely
Through artificial intelligence (AI), scientists have now learned that we may have a completely new and as yet unidentified subspecies ...
Fossils fill ‘missing link’ gap between early humans and predecessors
Early humans were still swinging from trees two million years ago, scientists have said, after confirming a set of contentious ...
Ancient DNA answering previously ‘unresolvable’ questions about extinct species
The idea that [the answer to ancient questions] might be preserved in [the DNA of] old specimens has been around ...
Viewpoint: Why we need to know more about transgenderism and genetics
“Transgender” is a term that Just a few years ago was nonexistent in the news. These day, hardly a week ...
Infographic: How do urban environments drive genetic change?
Air pollution may favor the adaptation of organisms to become more stress-resistant than their rural counterparts. There is some evidence ...
Viewpoint: Evolution denialism is back. This time it’s coming from the left
Evolutionary biology has always been controversial, but new discussions about sex and gender have led to a resurgence in denial ...
Learning about modern genetics through the long-extinct aurochs
The world’s first reported instance of species extinction is also a good window on today’s genetic revolution ...
Rethinking evolution: Animals’ attraction to beauty may have nothing to do with survival
Numerous species have conspicuous, metabolically costly and physically burdensome sexual ornaments, as biologists call them. Think of the bright elastic ...
Meet Alice Lee, the woman who disproved myths about skull size, sex, intelligence
On the morning of June 10, 1898, Alice Lee marched into the all-male Anatomical Society meeting at Trinity College in ...
Was life on Earth sparked by ‘moon-sized’ impact 4.4 billion years ago?
A cataclysm may have jump-started life on Earth. A new scenario suggests that some 4.47 billion years ago—a mere 60 ...
Arguing for and against consciousness in single-celled organisms
A provocative new book by Arthur Reber argues that bacteria are conscious and that the origins of mind are found ...
What jellyfish can show us about complex evolution through simple genomes
You might expect that as bodies became more complex, genomes did as well. But a recent study appearing in Nature Ecology & Evolution ...
I’m a geneticist. A DNA test uncovered a half-sister and sparked painful questions
My own discovery is so overwhelming that I can’t talk about it much, even though my new half-sister has possibly ...
10,000-year-old remains suggest dogs reached North America earlier than previously thought
The skeletal remains of three ancient dogs found buried in Illinois now represent the earliest evidence for the presence of ...
Urbanization is a ‘massive unplanned experiment’: How cities affect evolution
[C]ities are having profound effects on their animal and plant residents. Globally, about 0.5 percent of Earth’s land area is ...
Why did dinosaurs thrive for so long, while other ancient species faced extinction?
Everybody knows about the K/Pg Mass Extinction. As soon as we learn about dinosaurs, and demand to know why we ...
9 GLP 2018 human genetics highlights: Sen Warren’s Native American ancestry; transgender genetics; Freddie Mercury’s teeth and his voice
The top GLP stories in a very busy year for human genetics ...
The rise and fall of genetic determinism
We’ve all seen the stark headlines: “Being Rich and Successful Is in Your DNA” (Guardian, July 12); “A New Genetic ...
