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

Long before humans became master hunters, our ancestors were already thriving by making the most of what nature left behind. New research suggests that scavenging animal carcasses wasn’t a desperate ...

Scientists have revealed the most complete skeleton yet of our 2 million-year-old ancestor Homo habilis.

Studying human evolution involves piecing together scattered clues about how we survived against tough odds. One of the biggest mysteries is understanding how large or small ancient human populations ...

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

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 ...

A reanalysis of a one-million-year-old human skull found in China is challenging the established timeline of human evolution, and suggests a new branch of the human family tree, as well as a possible ...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be the result of millions of years of evolution. Rapid neuronal evolution in humans is likely ASD’s genetic cause, new research suggests. Though autism can cause ...

Researchers discovered that autism’s prevalence may be linked to human brain evolution. Specific neurons in the outer brain evolved rapidly, and autism-linked genes changed under natural selection.

As humanity prepares to take its first steps on Mars, a comprehensive report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and steered by scientists at Penn State lays out ...