In the last decade, archaeologists have learned to read the genetic traces that ancient humans and Neanderthals left not only ...

The oldest sediment DNA discovered so far comes from Greenland and is 2 million years old.

Researchers have reconstructed ancient herpesvirus genomes from Iron Age and medieval Europeans, revealing that HHV-6 has ...

The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, the biological blueprints that make humans … well, human. But it turns out that some of our DNA — about 8% — are the remnants of ancient viruses ...

Ancient humans crossing the Bering Strait into the Americas carried more than tools and determination—they also carried a genetic legacy from Denisovans, an extinct human relative. A new study reveals ...

Two small changes in human DNA may have played a big role in helping our ancestors walk upright, researchers say. The study, recently published in the journal Nature, found that these tweaks changed ...

In the earliest hours after fertilization, an embryo takes its first steps toward becoming a living organism by shedding maternal control and activating its own genetic program. This critical process, ...

Ancient DNA reveals that childhood viruses lived with humans for thousands of years, reshaping how we understand human and ...