Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest sci-tech news updates. New evidence from fossils representing two groups of human ancestors—Australopithecus and early Homo—adds an important piece to the ...

Humanity may not be extraordinary but rather the natural evolutionary outcome for our planet and likely others, according to a new model for how intelligent life developed on Earth. The model, which ...

Scientists have long thought humanity is the result of a series of improbable events over billions of years of evolution. Indeed, our overall intelligence, sciences, arts, technological achievements, ...

A recent study proposes a new paradigm for understanding the role of carrion in the subsistence of human populations throughout their evolution. Ana Mateos and Jesús Rodríguez, scientists at the ...

A study of 225 newborns suggests prenatal estrogen may have played a role in the evolution of larger human brains. Boys with finger-length patterns linked to higher estrogen exposure before birth ...

A craving for sweets may have helped set the stage for the evolution of the human brain. Over 4 million years, our lineage’s brains grew from about 300 grams to 1,500 grams. Much of the brain growth ...

Human evolution has long been tied to growing brain size, and new research suggests prenatal hormones may have played a surprising role. By studying the relative lengths of index and ring fingers — a ...

South Africa has one of the world’s richest fossil records of hominins (humans and their fossil ancestors). But many misconceptions still exist regarding human evolution, and school textbooks contain ...