The word " Viking " evokes vivid images of mighty, fair-haired seafarers pillaging coastal settlements. Yet is this portrayal an accurate reflection of their genetic makeup? Groundbreaking...
A groundbreaking new study has harnessed the power of mitochondrial DNA to trace a marvelous female lineage from northern coastal China all the way to the Americas. This has revealed compelling...
Achieving an historic and groundbreaking first, an international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany have successfully extracted intact...
Scientists have successfully created a hybrid of elephant, sheep, and mammoth DNA in a laboratory, which they have misleadingly dubbed the “mammoth meatball”. Despite their success, producers of the...
The answers to decades-long questions about the health issues suffered by famed classical music composer Ludwig van Beethoven have been found in the most unexpected of places. Thanks to in-depth...
Have you ever wondered where the phrase “dead as a dodo” comes from? Used to describe something obsolete, unimportant and unquestionably dead, the saying was inspired by the sad story of the long-...
The biblical Levites were a group of people from the tribe of Levi set apart for religious service in ancient Israel. The most famous Levite was Aaron, Moses 's big brother and the first priest. The...
The Americas were settled by people who migrated across the Bering Sea land bridge that connected Siberia (North Asia) and North America during the last Ice Age, between 30,000 and 12,000 years ago...
It was “customary” for cousins to marry in the Aegean Bronze Age, according to a team of archaeogeneticists studying ancient social customs. Cousin marriage is defined as the legal union of two...
Home DNA testing has exploded in popularity in recent years, with millions of people around the world using these kits to learn more about their ancestry and genetic health risks. However, while...
A “breakthrough” has been made in understanding the history of our planet. Studying ancient environmental DNA a team of researchers has now tracked and mapped the evolution of biological communities...
A new study based on cutting-edge genetic analysis has revealed startling new information about South American migration patterns. By carrying out a complete genetic sequencing of DNA provided by...
Based on the DNA extracted from a 19th century skeleton, a forensic artist has recreated the face of a man who was buried, but never laid to rest. Mr. John Barber’s body was later dug up so that his...
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was the most recent time in Earth’s history when the ice sheets were at their greatest extent, with the decline starting somewhere around 15,000-14,000 years ago. At...
We may have a lot more to thank (or curse) our ancestors for than we realize. When the Black Death or the bubonic plague swept through Europe 700 years ago, it literally killed 50% of the population...
DNA from Neanderthal bones found in a cave in Russia have revealed the first known family of Neanderthals – a father, his teenage daughter, and others who were probably cousins. A 2020 study...