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.

A new analysis of genetic studies proposes that the cognitive capacity for language was already present at least 135,000 years ago.

Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe. Using advanced analysis based ...

Genetic research does not always produce tidy answers. Sometimes it reveals traces that raise more questions than they settle. In recent years, scientists studying human DNA identified genetic signals ...

An analysis of ancient and modern DNA suggests the extent of convergent evolution in different peoples around the world is ...

Smithsonian paleoanthropologists explore how the year brought us closer to understanding ancient human relatives and origins Ryan McRae and Briana Pobiner A young chimpanzee looks on during an outing ...

The evolutionary success of our species may have hinged on minute changes to our brain biochemistry after we diverged from the lineage leading to Neanderthals and Denisovans about half a million years ...