Scientists read ancient DNA from South African hunter gatherers and found a very early human branch that shaped survival traits.

Cats were domesticated in North Africa, but spread to Europe only about 2,000 years ago. Earlier reports of “house” cats were ...

A new paper on ancient DNA (aDNA) posits that every person on the planet is descended from hunter-gatherers in Africa. The study was published last month in the journal Nature. In the paper, authors ...

Changing climate conditions have been known to foster human evolution throughout history, especially in Africa, where our story first unfolded. However, new research has flipped the script on a common ...

Ancient DNA is finally putting hard numbers on a mystery that has trailed humanity for millennia: when our most familiar ...

Many modern histories tend to focus on ancient kingdoms and empires around the Mediterranean and in the Fertile Crescent. But Western versions of history tend to overlook the many significant kingdoms ...

With each passing day the assault on all things Black increases. Ancient African proverbs offer wisdom that can give more weight to Black history lessons Ancient African proverbs offer wisdom that can ...

Learn how genomes from 28 ancient individuals show that Homo sapiens lived in southern Africa in near isolation for hundreds of millennia — preserving rare genetic variants that still exist today. A ...

The American Journal of Human Genetics recently published a perspective piece on the need for an equitable and inclusive future for DNA and ancient DNA (aDNA) research in Africa. The paper highlights ...

A faded label suggested the bones had been unearthed at the nearby Beachy Head cliffs sometime in the 1950s, though specific details of the original excavation had been lost to time. What followed was ...

Benin City, in southern Nigeria, has risen from a history marked by conquest and loss to become a bustling urban center of more than 2 million residents. Once the heart of the powerful Kingdom of ...