Human evolution is often told as a tidy story of adaptation, yet some of our most familiar body parts still defy straightforward explanation. From the jut of the human chin to the curve of the outer ...

The Origins Science Scholars Series will continue with a presentation by Cynthia Beall, Distinguished University Professor and the Sarah Idell Pyle Professor of Anthropology, titled “Tracing Evolution ...

For decades, the dominant theory in human evolution suggested that modern humans descended from a single ancestral lineage in Africa. However, groundbreaking new research from the University of ...

Human evolution’s biggest mystery, which emerged 15 years ago from a 60,000-year-old pinkie finger bone, finally started to unravel in 2025. Analysis of DNA extracted from the fossil electrified the ...

Learn how repeated burn injuries may have acted as a form of natural selection, influencing human genes linked to healing and immune response.

Researchers at the University of Maine are theorizing that human beings may be in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—driven not by genes, but by culture. "Human evolution seems to be changing ...

Most research in human genetics has historically focused on people of European ancestries—a long-standing bias that may limit the accuracy of scientific predictions for people from other populations.

Humans have lived with fire for over a million years. Scientists now say burn injuries may have influenced human evolution and healing.

Retrotransposons are pivotal in human genome evolution, driving structural variation and regulatory innovation while influencing health and disease.