Scientists say they have recovered the oldest known Homo sapiens DNA from human remains found in Europe, and the information is helping to reveal our species’ shared history with Neanderthals.

Scientists have successfully sequenced the genomes of seven people who lived in Europe between 42,000 and 49,000 years ago, revealing that they belonged to the earliest known group of humans to split ...

“It’s an incredible breakthrough. They managed to get DNA out of a sample that dates back to a time before either modern humans or Neanderthals existed,” said David Reich from Harvard Medical School, ...

View Full Profile. Learn about our Editorial Policies. Ancient DNA dating to between 16,000–18,000 years ago—the oldest human DNA to be extracted in Africa so far—reveals that populations of ...

At the same time, researchers for the Nature study discovered a "new line of evidence by sequencing the oldest human genomes yet ... that 1% to 3% of people have DNA that can be linked to ...

The research team at the Atapuerca archaeological sites in Burgos, Spain, has just broken its own record by discovering, for ...

Then, one maverick scientist had the controversial idea to look for DNA not in fossils or frozen ancient tissue – but in dirt. Join the hunt as scientists decipher the oldest DNA ever found ...

Fossilized bones discovered decades ago and hailed at the time as the oldest human remains found in Japan turn out to be from a prehistoric bear, a new analysis shows. Not only that, the items are ...

Studying ancient DNA from fossil remains and environmental samples gives scientists the power to reconstruct the evolutionary history of our planet and understand the impact of human activities.