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A psychic’s claim to be the daughter of Salvador Dalí has been disproven. Source: korionov / Adobe Stock.

DNA Test Disproves Woman’s Claim to be Salvador Dalí’s Daughter

A long-running legal case involving Salvador Dalí, one of the 20th century’s greatest painters, may have finally come to an end. A woman who had filed a paternity suit against the estate of the...
Landscape at the Baikal lake in Siberia, origins of the first Americans? Source: serge-b / Adobe Stock

Found! The Deepest Link Between Siberians and the First Americans

Using human population genetics, ancient pathogen genomics, and isotope analysis, a team of researchers assessed the population history of the Lake Baikal region, finding the deepest connection to...
The researchers found surprising examples of genetic continuity of ancient Andean genes to some modern groups. Source: SL-Photography /Adobe Stock

Ancient Andean Genes Reveal DNA Continuity Amid Cultural Clashes

An international research team has conducted the first in-depth, wide-scale study of ancient Andean genes before European contact. The findings, published online May 7 in Cell , reveal early genetic...
Did Denisovan ancestry reach European megalith builders? Source: adrenalinapura / Adobe Stock

The Far-Reaching Realms of Denisovan Ancestry Stretch to Iceland

This week it was announced that a new genetic study published in the journal Nature shows that the genomes of over 27,000 Icelanders display an admixture of modern human and Neanderthal DNA, along...
Top view of the Dolmen of Oberbipp in Switzerland, one of the largest burial sites in the study, where Neolithic remains were studied, revealing clues to the Yamnaya Culture’s migration to Europe.       Source: Urs Dardel / Archäologischer Dienst des Kanton Bern

Neolithic DNA Reveals Surprising Truth of the Yamnaya Culture in Europe

Genetic research has revolutionized our understanding of Switzerland’s prehistoric past. A group of researchers have carried out a study of genomes from individuals who lived in the Late Neolithic...
An iron currency ring and human skull found in the rare cave burial in Gabon, Africa. Source: NOT Engineers

Rare Cave Burial Might Resolve Africa’s Black Death Mystery

A team led by a geo-archaeologist and a speleologist have discovered a rare cave burial in Africa containing 30 skeletons, drilled cats’ teeth, and iron artifacts. The 14th-century underground burial...
Ancient couple

Super Archaic Humans Mixed with Unknown 'Ghost' Species

Do you remember those school science posters that depicted human evolution with a primate standing up and becoming a modern human? Of course you do, but you may not have noticed that these posters...
Neanderthal ancestry found in Africans.        Source: procy_ab / Adobe Stock

Neanderthal Ancestry Detected in Africans For the First Time

When the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, using DNA collected from ancient bones, it was accompanied by the discovery that modern humans in Asia, Europe and America inherited approximately 2%...
The Shum Laka rock shelter in Cameroon, home to an ancient population that bears little genetic resemblance to most people who live in the region today.    Source: Pierre de Maret

Ancient DNA From West Africa Reveals ‘Ghost’ Lineage

Saint Louis University Africa is the homeland of our species and harbors greater human genetic diversity than any other part of the planet. Studies of ancient DNA from African archaeological sites...
Artistic reconstruction of ‘Lola, based on the information from the DNA found in the birch tar. Source: Tom Björklund / Nature

Chewing Gum Reveals Look of Neolithic Scandinavian

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have succeeded in extracting a complete human genome from a thousands-of-years old “chewing gum”. According to the researchers, it is a new untapped...
Does Bigfoot really exist?     Source: ginettigino / Adobe Stock.

Another Bigfoot Quest, Another Shaky Video

A new documentary series on the Travel Channel sets out to find Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest. North America's fabled apelike creature has been a life-long obsession of author and explorer Russell...
Mythological, demonic Rakshasa (V.R.Murralinath / Adobe Stock)

Genetic Study Suggests Denisovans Were the Mythological Rakshasas

A new genetic study of 1739 Asian individuals from 219 populations has found that on the Indian sub-continent today Denisovan DNA exists mostly among isolated, tribal communities. It also found that...
Roman genetics has revealed the ancestral origins of the Romans. Source: serpeblu / Adobe Stock

Genetic Study Reveals Exactly Who ‘The Romans’ Were

Scholars have been studying Rome for hundreds of years, but it still holds some secrets - for instance, relatively little is known about the ancestral origins of the city's denizens. Now, an...
Researchers claim to have found the ancestral homeland of all living humans today. Source: ginettigino /Adobe Stock

Researchers Pin-Point ‘Ancestral Homeland’ of All Modern Humans

Most people accept that anatomically modern humans first arose in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago, but the location where that monumental evolutionary event took place on the continent has been less...
A preliminary portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Source: Maayan Harel

Face of the Denisovans? Portrait of a Teen Revealed by Her DNA

Based on ancient DNA methylation patterns, a portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan has been recreated. Only two weeks ago I wrote a news piece for Ancient Origins in which I listed all of the known...
The Icelandic walrus began extinct at the arrival of the Norse. Source: Calvin / Adobe Stock.

Norse Settlers Wiped Out Icelandic Walrus 1100 Years Ago

An international collaboration of scientists in Iceland , Denmark , and the Netherlands has for the first time used ancient DNA analyses and C14-dating to demonstrate the past existence of a unique...
The skeletons buried in Italy have been holding hands for around 1500 years. Source: ArcheoModena

Hand-Holding Skeletons Were Both Men… And No, They Were Not Gay Lovers

Two skeletons intentionally buried hand-in-hand – the so-called ‘Lovers of Modena’ – were always assumed to be male and female. But a new study finds they were both men, raising questions as to their...
Representation of discovery of the skeleton at the Rakhigarhi archaeological site. Source: Elena / Adobe Stock.

DNA of 5,000-Year-Old Woman Links Modern Indians to Ancient Indus Valley Civilization

Ancient DNA from India’s Rakhigarhi archaeological site is telling volumes about the destiny of the mysterious Indus Valley Civilization. Around 3000 BC, Neolithic hunters in northern Scotland began...
Early hominin works with tools. (procy_ab/AdobeStock)

Finger Bone Points the Way to Revealing Denisovan DNA Secrets

A Denisovan finger fossil is revealing secrets about this extinct Stone Age race. A decade ago, scientists excavating Denisova Cave , an ancient archaeological site in southern Siberia, discovered...
Modern Scots Share DNA With Dark Age Picts. Source: Peter Atkins / Adobe Stock.

Modern Scots Share DNA With Dark Age Picts

Scientists reveal modern Scots have strong genetic links with their Dark Age ancestors. “ We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns” (We are all Jock Tamson’s children) is an old Scottish phrase meaning all...
Siberian puppy frozen in permafrost for 14,300 years gives scientists major RNA breakthrough. Source: Siberian Times

Siberian Puppy Frozen for 14,300 Years is a Major RNA Breakthrough

By Svetlana Skarbo/Siberian Times Never before has RNA - Ribonucleic acid - sequencing been carried out from so far back in time. Finding RNA on the puppy found preserved in permafrost in Tumat in...
Padar Island, Flores, Indonesia, part of the Wallacea group of islands.

17,000-Year-Old Skulls Discovered On Migration ‘Highway To Oz’

Two 12,000 and 17,000 year old human skulls , smaller than expected, were discovered on what scientists are calling an ancient migration highway to Australia . A new research paper features a study...
Skull in the snow. Credit: Antje / Adobe Stock

Himalayan Skeleton Lake Mystery Just Got Deeper

The mysterious circumstances surrounding events at a remote mountain lake, found full of human skeletons, are evading scientists who have looked deep into this bizarre incident. The remains of about...
Young chimpanzee. On Right - Human Embryo. Source: Left, Public Domain; Right, CC BY-SA 2.0.

World’s First Human-Monkey Hybrid Created In China

A team of American and Spanish scientists relocated to China to jump European laws and they have created the world’s first human-monkey embryo, in the next step in the controversial breeding of...

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