Biologists are quietly rewriting what it means to be alive, and the human body has become one of their strangest frontiers.

In paleoanthropology, a rare, nearly-complete skeleton can rewrite entire chapters of the human origin story. The “Little ...

Many known hominin fossils defy species classification, with the most famous example being the ever-enigmatic Denisovans. A study by anthropologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the ...

Scientists have digitally reconstructed the face of a 1.5-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil from Ethiopia, uncovering an unexpectedly primitive appearance. While its braincase fits with classic ...

Our species is defined by a long list of cultural and genetic traits that set us apart from our ancient counterparts. New research suggests at least some key distinctions date back earlier than ...

The textbook version of the "Out of Africa" hypothesis holds that the first human species to leave the continent around 1.8 ...

The climate and early human societies were changing quickly during the fall of our closest evolutionary relative—and are big clues to the causes of their demise. This reconstruction of a Neanderthal ...

The human brain is a fascinating and complex organ that supports numerous sophisticated behaviors and abilities that are ...

The millions of species humans share the world with are valuable in their own right. When one species is lost, it has a ...