ancestry
‘New story unfolding’: Ancient finger bones found in Asia force a rethinking of human migration
Politics, geography, and tradition have long focused archaeological attention on the evolution of Homo sapiens in Europe and Africa. Now, ...
Podcast: Mapping Humanity—How modern genetics is changing criminal justice, personalized medicine, and our identities
Innovations in genetics are already changing our lives for the better, and will continue to do so. Using gene-editing technology, ...
For those with limited genetic knowledge, at-home ancestry tests fuel misconceptions that genes dictate race
University of Pennsylvania sociologist Wendy Roth [wondered] whether these do-it-yourself tests also fueled the idea that genes dictate race. After ...
What the ‘lady in the well’ tells us about ancient population movement in the Middle East
The bones of a woman of Central Asian descent found at the bottom of a deep well after a violent ...
Podcast: Tracing humanity’s roots: uncovering history and genetic diversity in Africa
We explore the genetic diversity in the birthplace of humanity and discover the cultural and historical stories written in the ...
Invading armies not to blame for fall of ancient Andean cultures, genetic analysis shows
An international team has conducted what it says is the first in-depth, wide-scale study of the genomic history of ancient ...
Why were these 1,000-year-old skulls shaped like ‘sci-fi aliens’?
Tight wrapping in childhood produced deliberately deformed skulls ...
Part of the forensic ‘jigsaw puzzle’: Tooth shape offers insights into a deceased person’s genetic makeup
A study found that some characteristics of dental remains — such as crown groove patterns, cusp size, number of roots, ...
When a consumer genetics test pushes your ‘right to know’ against someone else’s ‘right to privacy’
Stephen Wald took a home DNA test in 2018, hoping to explore his family ancestry with his two young children ...
Podcast: ‘How to argue with a racist’—geneticist Adam Rutherford challenges what he calls ‘pseudoscience’ in genetics and politics
Adam Rutherford explains how to argue with a racist, hunting for the ghosts in the human genome, and recreating the ...
Podcast: Latest discoveries in genetics, archaeology reveal early history of the British people
What's the real story behind the romantic myths about the Celts? And what can modern genetic and anthropological techniques tell ...
Distinctive ‘Habsburg jaw’ of medieval kings and queens was created by centuries of inbreeding, study suggests
Many of the kings and queens of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, which ruled across Europe from the 16th to the ...
Inherited Neanderthal, Denisovan DNA may help with our metabolism, immunity and diet
Neanderthals and Denisovans went extinct some 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, but not before these closely related hominins interbred with ...
Tackling Stone Age stereotypes and misconceptions including this: They made tools out of more than just stone
Although most depictions of Stone Age hunters are male, women and children played a huge part in the creation and ...
Scientists reconstruct yet-to-be-found skull of humans’ last common ancestor entirely through computer imaging
[R]esearchers like Dr. [Aurélien] Mounier are using computers and mathematical techniques to reconstruct the appearance of fossils they have yet ...
Unraveling the genetic mystery of Skeleton Lake, an ancient Indian site filled with hundreds of human bones
At the mysterious Skeleton Lake in northern India, the dead are talking, revealing surprises through centuries-old DNA. And it’s not ...
Biblical Philistines came from southern Europe, suggests analysis of ancient DNA
“[P]hilistine” is still sometimes lobbed as an insult for an uncultured or crass person. But who were the Philistines, exactly? ...
Who’s your daddy (or mommy)? What’s the chance you inherited DNA from Caligula, Genghis Khan or Henry I?
Genealogy is the second most popular hobby in the United States ...
DNA found in 10,000-year-old ‘chewing gum’ sheds light on ancient Sweden
In the 1990s, archaeologists recovered a few chewed-up lumps of birch bark pitch, some of which still held fingerprints and ...
Was our brain growth kick-started by ancestors scavenging bone marrow from animal carcasses?
A new theory challenges assumptions about when and how our ancestors altered their behaviors to boost brainpower ...
‘The broken promise of anonymity’? Bioethicist’s call to guard identity of sperm and egg donors is misguided
Dr. Pennings’ opinion fails to capture the complexity of donation ...
Stonehenge mystery solved! DNA analysis tells us where builders came from
The ancestors of the people who built Stonehenge travelled west across the Mediterranean before reaching Britain, a study has shown ...
Purebred? How humans invented the modern concept of ‘dog breeds’
Modern purebred dog breeds were created in Victorian Britain ...
Exploring the havoc that can be unleashed by consumer ancestry tests
On what fraction of a human genome do the consumer DNA companies base these deductions that can shatter lives? ...
Glimpse into enslaved woman’s life offered by DNA found in clay pipe at Maryland plantation
Clay pipes used for smoking were so common in the 1700s and 1800s that it’s not very remarkable to find ...
We face a host of new ethical questions including: Who actually owns your DNA?
DNA is one of the greatest medical discoveries ever. Using the tools of contemporary genetics, physicians and scientists can explore ...
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 ...