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Representative image of the impact of ancient retrovirus on evolution. Source: alexkich / Adobe Stock

Brain’s Evolutionary Explosion Linked to Ancient Retrovirus Infection

A new study has unraveled a mystery that is key to understanding the course of human and animal evolution. A team of genetic researchers from Altos Labs at the Cambridge Institute of Science in the...
Study reveals Denisovan genetic make-up may be responsible for modern day depression. Source: Bartek/Adobe Stock, Woraphon/Adobe Stock

Denisovan Genes Responsible for Modern Depression, Says New Study

Ancient humans inter-breeding with extinct Denisovans have created a genetic make-up and subsequent adaptations that have left many of us predisposed to certain mental health issues like depression,...
New study challenges what was initially believed about 5,300-year-old Ötzi the Iceman genes. (Inset: The Ötzi mummy)  Source: OetziTheIceman/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (Inset; Cell Press)

Ötzi the Iceman Genes Trace to Early Anatolian Farmers, and He Had a Receding Hairline

The world’s oldest Alpine celebrity, fodder for many different kinds of studies and analyses over the years since his discovery on the mountainous border between Austria and Italy in 1991, ‘ Ötzi the...
The 3D Digital Facial Zoom of Zlatý kůň, the oldest remains to have been genomically sequenced. Source: Cícero Moraes/CC  BY 4.0

World’s Earliest Known Woman ‘Zlatý Kůň’ Has Her Face Reconstructed!

Over 70 years after her severed skull was first discovered buried deep within a cave in the Czech Republic in two different halves, scientists conducted genome sequencing to determine that it was the...
Beethoven. Source: flint0010 / Adobe Stock

Beethoven Died of Alcoholism, Promiscuity and a Weak Liver

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...
Ancient DNA from human remains like this representation were used in the study. Source: Erin Cadigan / Adobe Stock

Ancient DNA Reveals Hitherto Unknown Aspects of Human Evolution

Ancient DNA from human remains that are around 45,000 years old has given scientists new insights into human evolution. It has enabled them to conclude that human populations fairly quickly adopted...
Breakthrough research into alternative dating technology using the Temporal Population Structure (TPS) tool could provide more accurate dating of ancient remains. Source: BillionPhotos.com / Adobe Stock

Successfully Dating a Mummy Just Got Easier. New Testing Revealed

It is no secret that in dating, timing is everything. When studying the past, whether finding coins, bones, or pathogens buried in a mound – the question of when they are from makes the difference...
Pompeii man and woman discovered in the Casa de Fabbro, or House of the Crafsman, in a photograph taken in 1934. Source: Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità

First Complete DNA Sequencing Unveils Truth of Pompeii Victim

The skeletons of a man and woman discovered around 100 years ago, as they were trying to survive the notorious Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD, have been put under the scanner by scientists. Using...
European traits vary due to historic genetic influences. Here a blue-eyed, blonde-haired woman, typical traits of Estonia where the study is based. 	Source: Jeremy Francis / Adobe Stock

How Mixed Ancestries Shaped European Traits

An eye-opening new study appearing in the journal Current Biology delves into the extensive interactions between different ethnic groups that shaped the genomes of contemporary Europeans. The...
Innovative DNA analysis has unlocked genetic secrets to human history in the Americas. Source: svetlaborovko / Adobe Stock

Decade of DNA Analysis Reveals Astonishing Truths About Our Past

It was a little over a decade ago that the evolutionary biologist Eske Willerslev successfully applied innovative DNA analysis and decoding technology to unlock genetic secrets from the past. In that...
Genetic Study of Romanian Skull Upends Previous Theories of Evolution

Genetic Study of Romanian Skull Upends Previous Theories of Evolution

A team of researchers led by the Swedish Uppsala University geneticist Mattias Jakobsson have fully sequenced the genome of a woman who lived in Europe at least 35,000 years ago. Her DNA was...
Scientists Create Fully Functioning Neanderthal Mini Brain

Scientists Create Fully Functioning Neanderthal Mini Brain

A deep and detailed analysis of Neanderthal DNA has revealed the existence of a distinct gene, called NOVA1, that would have significantly influenced early brain development in this long-extinct...
Genes of the Vikings traced across Europe.    Source: Nejron Photo / Adobe Stock

Tracking the Genetic Fingerprints of the Viking Woman Hunters

Scientists have tracked ancient Viking genes across Europe further detailing the cultural, political and economic impact of the legendary raiders and traders of the Middle Ages. The Germanic Iron Age...
Thanks to fossil DNA, geneticists now know that different lineages of our ancestors interbred with one another, creating new genetic lines and ensuring the modern human race is genetically diverse. Pictured: Representation of our prehistoric ancestors.      Source: Kovalenko I / Adobe stock

How Ancient Fossil DNA Reveals the Secrets of Our Human Origins

When the human genome was first discovered, it revealed some amazing genetic secrets – modern humans are way more complicated than we originally thought. During a long evolution , humankind picked up...
Research shows that Egypt’s pyramids and other megaliths worldwide are able to collect and focus electromagnetic energy. Could this be linked to accessing genetic memory and savant-like abilities? Pictured: a representation of the power of the mind. Source: agsandrew / Adobe stock

How the Ancients Accessed Genetic Memory and Savant-Like Abilities

The concept known as “genetic memory” is much less studied and far more controversial than what we know as “regular” memory. Whilst there are a multitude of other examples in animals (see: Gallagher...
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...
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%...
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...
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...
Lunel-Viel (Languedoc-Southern France). Victim of the plague thrown into a demolition trench of a Gallo-Roman house; end of the 6th-early 7th century. Source: 1990; CNRS - Claude Raynaud

Details of First Historically Recorded Plague Pandemic Revealed by Ancient Genomes

An international team of researchers have analysed human remains from 21 archaeological sites to learn more about the impact and evolution of the plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis during the...
The mass grave of 15 skeletons and grave goods at the Koszyce burial. Source: H Schroeder et al / PNAS.

5000-Year-Old Family Found In Mass Burial Was Brutally Murdered

New research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ( PNAS ) entitled “Unravelling ancestry , kinship, and violence in a Late...
Ancient secrets of medicinal mint unlocked through science. Source: Yü Lan / Adobe.

Medicinal Mint Decoded: Scientists Learn Ancient Secrets of Chinese Skullcap Mint

The precious chemistry of a plant used for 2000 years in traditional Chinese medicine has been unlocked in a project that raises the prospect of rapid access to a wide array of therapeutic drugs ...
DNA molecule representation

Ancient DNA Data Fills in Thousands of Years of Human Movement and Genetic Adaptation in Africa

By sequencing the ancient genomes of 15 individuals from different parts of Africa, researchers reporting in the journal Cell in September 2017 reconstructed the prehistory of humans on the continent...
Adam and Eve (rudall30 / Adobe Stock)

One Hundred Thousand Adams and Eves?

When the journalist Roger Lewin in 1987 dubbed the common maternal ancestor of all people living today “ Mitochondrial Eve ,” he evoked a creation story —that of a woman who was the mother of us all...

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