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 ...

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

Scientists sequenced genomes from 28 individuals dated between 225 and 10,275 years old. These remains came from regions ...

In one of the largest African ancient-DNA studies to date, geneticists from Uppsala University, Sweden, and an archaeologist ...

Ancient DNA from southern Africa is rewriting the story of our species, revealing that some early humans in this region lived ...

A large ancient DNA study reveals that early humans in southern Africa lived in long-term isolation for at least 200,000 years. Genomes from 28 individuals uncovered unique adaptations, including ...

Humans were isolated in southern Africa for about 100,000 years, which caused them to "fall outside the range of genetic variation" seen in modern-day people, a new genetic study reveals. The finding ...

It seems that southern Africa provided an ecological refuge where people adapted successfully for more than 200,000 years – ...

Africa has long been known as the cradle of humanity. Fossils, tools and genetics all point there. Yet the deeper story of ...

Making fire on demand was a milestone in the lives of our early ancestors. But the question of when that skill first arose ...

The fossil and genetic evidence agree that modern humans originated in Africa. The most genetically diverse human populations—the groups that have had the longest time to pick up novel mutations—live ...

Eddie Maloka explores the urgent need for South Africa to recognise its strategic position between the Atlantic and Indian ...