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AI representation of a Neanderthal couple wearing fur. Source: Ricky/Adobe Stock

Is Interbreeding Why Neanderthals and Denisovans Vanished? (Video)

A groundbreaking scientific discovery sheds light on the disappearance of Neanderthals and Denisovans , ancient human populations that once roamed Eurasia. Through an examination of their blood types...
Did a tribe of cannibals encounter the Denisovans. Source: to_go / Adobe Stock.

Did A Tribe of Cannibals Interbreed with the Denisovans? (Video)

In the untamed landscapes of Island Southeast Asia, scientists investigating the mysterious a group of hominins called the Denisovans have stumbled upon a revelation that challenges conventional...
Scientists may have discovered why there is a discrepancy between the Neanderthal DNA present in modern-day Asian and European Homo sapiens. Source: Winters860 / Adobe Stock

Study Tracks Neanderthal DNA, and It’s A Cross-Continental Odyssey!

While Neanderthals went extinct approximately 40,000 years ago, they left a legacy hidden inside the genetic codes of humans, in the form of traces of their Neanderthal DNA. Even though Neanderthals...
Little is known about the enigmatic Denisovans. Source: Microgen / Adobe Stock.

Strange Things You Didn't Know About Denisovans! (Video)

Unearth the mysterious Denisovans, a human-like species coexisting with Neanderthals in Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic eras. Only recently discovered in Siberia's Denisova Cave in 2008...
Early Homin migration caused by climate change could have been the driving force between interbreeding between Denisovans and Neanderthals. Source: Gorodenkoff / Adobe Stock

Climate Change Played Cupid Between Neanderthals and Denisovans

It has been 5 years since the unearthing of Denny , a 90,000-year-old fossil specimen that had a Denisovan father and a Neanderthal mother. This find served as proof that interbreeding was quite...
The hand of a person with Viking’s disease, a.k.a. Dupuytren’s contracture, a condition of the hand that can cause some of a person’s fingers to become permanently bent at an angle. Source: Artwell / Adobe Stock

‘Viking’s Disease’ Hand Condition Traced Back to Ancestral Neanderthals

Researchers have discovered a link between Neanderthal genetic material and an unusual health disorder that affects modern humans. The disorder in question is Dupuytren’s disease, a.k.a. Viking’s...
A new study shows that humans and Neanderthals lived together in Europe for 2000 years. Source: athree23 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Modern Humans and Neanderthals Lived Together in Europe for 2,000 Years!

When Homo sapiens first arrived on the European continent about 42,500 years ago, the Neanderthals were still living there, and would remain there for another 1,400 to 2,900 years before finally...
Study Shows Humans and Neanderthals Interbred Primarily in the Near East

Study Shows Humans and Neanderthals Interbred Primarily in the Near East

Multiple research projects have proven that Neanderthal DNA can be found in the genome of modern humans. This likely happened as a result of many interbreeding events that took place in the various...
Colonial sources attest that Juan Cortés, slave of the soldier Juan Sedeño, was the first African registered in New Spain. He was part of the military consortium led by Hernán Cortés in 1519 (Bishop Diego Durán). Source: Arqueología Mexicana / Raices / Antiquity Publications Ltd

Cross-Cultural Living and Dying in Colonial Campeche, But No Sex

2022 is shaping up to be a big year for colonial era discoveries in Central and South America. Only in May Ancient Origins covered the story of archaeologists studying “42 syphilis-ridden colonial...
Cave art depicting two figures copulating from Jabbaren, Algeria. Source: Trust for African Rock Art / Fair Use

Neanderthal-Human Sex Caused a Million Covid Deaths

About 60,000 years ago, a human had a sexual encounter with a Neanderthal. Now, a genetic scientist has claimed that this single sexual act caused the deaths of up to a million people during the...
We have remains of Tibetan Plateau Denisovans, who lived for long periods in this landscape. But now we know that they passed their high-altitude adaptability genes on to Tibetans and other peoples that ultimately settled in the Himalayas.						Source: zah108 / Adobe Stock

Tibetan Plateau Denisovans Gave Modern Tibetans Altitude Superpowers

Little is known about our extinct archaic hominin cousins, the Denisovans, who populated Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, due to limited DNA fragments and evidence. This makes...
This is what the human papillomavirus looks like in the body. The latest research has indicated that modern humans got HPV from interbreeding with Neanderthals in Eurasia. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection globally.                Source: Naeblys / Adobe Stock

Neanderthals Passed Human Papillomavirus to Homo Sapiens in Eurasia

It is well-known that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals during the time they co-existed in Europe and Asia. A 2018 study revealed an interesting and intriguing detail about that interbreeding...
Neanderthal Extinction Tied to Disorder Caused by Mating with Humans

Neanderthal Extinction Tied to Disorder Caused by Mating with Humans

There has been much speculation about Neanderthal extinction and why they disappeared 40,000 years ago. The latest research suggests they lived side-by-side with modern humans (Homo sapiens) for up...
A drawing of a Neanderthal man looking to the horizon and wondering if he will meet another "human" and, if so a human woman. The human genome it turns out has a lot of Neanderthal genes and now a Danish AI program is proving it.

AI Finds New Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA Mutations in Human Genome

Scientists affiliated with the GLOBE Institute’s GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have created an Artificial Intelligence program that is helping them identify ancient...
Genetic Evidence Suggests a Denisovan Presence in the Pacific Islands

Genetic Evidence Suggests a Denisovan Presence in the Pacific Islands

A new genetic study has provided important data to evolutionary scientists seeking to trace the migratory movements and cultural interactions of the people who settled the South Pacific islands of...
Bacho Kiro Cave Reveals Volumes About Human-Neanderthal Relationship

Bacho Kiro Cave Reveals Volumes About Human-Neanderthal Relationship

In 2020 a team of researchers reported the discovery of a collection of Upper Palaeolithic stone tools at the Bacho Kiro Cave site in Bulgaria . Among the tools they discovered the remains of modern...
Neanderthal Interbreeding with Humans Rampant on Jersey?

Neanderthal Interbreeding with Humans Rampant on Jersey?

Modern technology has allowed experts to re-analyze ancient Neanderthal teeth discovered at the start of the 20th century in a Jersey cave. They have been found to share attributes with those of...
Neanderthal warrior            Source: Gorodenkoff / Adobe Stock

Neanderthals and Humans Were at War… For 100,000 Years!

Once much of Eurasia was dominated by Neanderthals, our archaic human ancestors. And the extinction of Neanderthals is one of the great mysteries in science. An evolutionary biologist and...
Ancient UK Viking families, who are now part of the native populations of Ireland, Scotland and England, were not entirely violent or focused on looting. Now, they are all friends!

Beyond Violence: Examining UK Viking Families and their Artifacts

Understanding Viking families through the artifacts they left behind and their DNA is the latest approach to learning more about the Viking Age in the United Kingdom. Scientists in the UK are...
Early human interbreeding is well known but a recent research study has shown that modern humans both received and gave DNA to Neanderthals, proving that these hominin cousins met more than once in the long arc of prehistoric time.

Study Reveals Sapiens Copulated the Y Out of Neanderthals

Early human interbreeding with our “cousins” the Denisovans and Neanderthals is an established fact but newly sequenced Neanderthal Y-chromosomes tell scientists that modern humans are the product of...
The discovery of an upper canine milk tooth that belonged to a Neanderthal child, aged 11 or 12, is believed to be about 48,000 years old. The discovery could help understand some of the last Neanderthals in Europe and why they became extinct. Source: Journal of Human Evolution.

48,000-Year-Old Tooth Belonged to One of the Last European Neanderthals

The discovery of a milk tooth from a Neanderthal child has been hailed as a major breakthrough. The tiny tooth possibly belonged to one of the last Neanderthals to have lived in Europe and is...
Human-Neanderthal fertility gene discovered in recent study. Source: Dimid / Adobe Stock.

Neanderthal Gene Makes Women More Fertile

Are you in the “one in three” group of European women with the special Neanderthal gene required for fewer pregnancy issues? The revelatory new DNA study by researchers at the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft...
Neanderthal extinction has been blamed on a drop in fertility. Source: Kovalenko I / Adobe Stock.

Small Drop In Fertility Rate May Have Led To Neanderthal Extinction

Sapiens be warned, the life of a population is fragile! After decades of speculation about Neanderthals being wiped out by our ancestors, a new scientific study suggests that Neanderthal extinction...
Finger bone fragment containing Denisovan DNA. Source: Thilo Parg / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Did the Denisovans Walk to North America?

For a people from whom one 41,000 year old finger bone fossil from a nine year old girl, along with a bracelet she wore, were (until recently) the only authenticated known artifacts, the mysterious...

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