Modern humans, Neanderthals, and other recent relatives on our human family tree evolved bigger brains much more rapidly than ...

Recent research challenges the theory that long childhood in humans is due to large brain sizes. Instead, analysis of early ...

Researchers believe that the extinct human species lived in small groups, which might have made them susceptible to ...

Lucy may be the best-known prehuman fossil in the world. But other famous fossils have given us important insight into our ...

Evolution could alter or even eliminate some of the human traits we cherish most, changing forever what it means to be human.

In pursuit of knowledge, the evolution of humanity ranks with the origins of life and the universe. And yet, except when an ...

Our understanding of human ancestry has changed dramatically since the discovery of Lucy the ancient hominin 50 years ago.

Why is human culture—the shared body of knowledge passed down across generations—so much more powerful than animal cultures? "What's special about our species?" is a question scientists have wrestled ...

When scientists first discovered fossils of this early human species, they estimated them to stand about 3 1/2 feet tall. New humerus and teeth fossils found in deposits at Mata Menge, about 45 miles ...

Despite their miniature brains, the ancient "Hobbits" do appear to have made stone tools. Utensils produced by the ...