Scientists found that one tiny DNA change in the NOVA1 gene helped modern humans resist lead exposure that harmed Neanderthals.

Several hominid species were consistently exposed to lead for almost two million years, which may have given modern humans a survival advantage.

Far up in the Ethiopian highlands, the resounding strike of stone against stone was probably a familiar one two million years ago. Ancient hominids chipped away to create simple tools: hammerstones ...

Monkeys in southern Thailand use rocks to pound open oil palm nuts, inadvertently shattering stone pieces off their makeshift nutcrackers. These flakes resemble some sharp-edged stone tools presumed ...

Fossilized human teeth spanning two million years of evolution had shockingly high contents of lead, which may have been the ...

What does it mean to be human? For a long time, the answer seemed clear. Our species, Homo sapiens - with our complex thoughts and deep emotions - were the only true humans to ever walk the Earth.

We Homo sapiens possess surprisingly few functional genes that distinguish us from extinct human lineages such as ...

An Israeli archaeologist works next to the recently discovered 2.5-meter-long tusk of an estimated 500,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant, near the city of Gedera, Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022.

Kids who belonged to now-extinct species in the human evolutionary family grew at unexpected rates, unlike the growth of either present-day people or apes, a new study of their teeth finds. As a ...

Lead exposure has been thought to be a uniquely modern phenomenon. Exposure to lead by ancient humans could have given modern humans a survival advantage over other species – more specifically, their ...