Researchers managed to extract DNA from African fossils dating back to the last ice age.
Articles on Ancient DNA
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A team of historians, archaeologists and forensic anthropologists is trying to identify 15 German soldiers who were unceremoniously dumped in a ditch after trying to help the British capture Philadelphia.
Two Denisovan leg bones from Taiwan came from tall individuals. But we can’t generalise to a whole species just yet.
A new study reveals that plague was lethal thousands of years ago, during the Neolithic.
The island’s history was marked by mixture and cultural reinvention.
Studies of Chinese Homo erectus suggest that it was no evolutionary dead end, but contributed genes to modern people in the region.
From the Black Death to the COVID-19 pandemic, combining the genetic data of a pathogen with historical records, archaeological artifacts and epidemiological studies can uncover its origins.
Studying ancient genes can tell us more about the evolution of humans’ anatomy, behaviour and thinking.
The recovery of ancient DNA is no longer limited to bones.
Ethical guidelines for ancient DNA need to protect past, present and future generations.
Despite surviving through large climatic fluctuations in the past, future climate warming may cause a drastic decline in caribou populations.
Many birds on Rēkohu Chatham Islands show how ‘island syndrome’ influences evolution – they are distinct but remain closely related to species on the mainland.
Researchers have extracted 2-million-year-old protein remains from Paranthropus robustus teeth to reveal biological sex and genetic variability.
New genetic research has traced the paternal line of Poland’s first royal dynasty, challenging long-held national traditions about the origins of the Piasts.
Research that combined archaeology, history and ecology provides a nuanced understanding of the past that could help conservationists better plan for the future.
These findings challenge the long-held narrative about migration into and out of North Africa before and during the Neolithic.
New ancient DNA research on Adélie penguin poo in Antarctica shows how several species respond to environmental change over time, including southern elephant seals.
Genetics shows that women stayed put in Late Iron Age Dorset, while men moved to other groups.
A recent announcement that kiwi and moa are Australian immigrants is not borne out by available evidence. Working out when birds arrived in New Zealand requires both fossil evidence and genetics.
The discovery of the Manawatāwhi pāua, unique to the Three Kings Islands, highlights the need to build taxonomic expertise to speed up work to describe thousands of as-yet unnamed species.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Ancient DNA, University of Otago
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Associate Professor of Anthropology, Rice University
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Curator of Human Evolution of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
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Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Otago
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Mathematician and Ancient DNA Researcher, Adelaide University
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah
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Professor in Molecular Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University
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Associate Professor of Archaeology, Griffith University
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Research scientist, Griffith University
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Professor of Genetics and of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
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Professor with Research Focus in Stone Age Archaeology, Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg
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Senior research fellow, Queensland University of Technology
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Postdoctoral Researcher, Swansea University
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Associate Professor of Population and Statistical Genetics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Genetics, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford