A landmark Nature study analyzing nearly 16,000 ancient and modern genomes from West Eurasia reveals that natural selection has intensified over the past 10,000 years. Researchers identified 479 gene ...

The work demonstrates the power of ancient DNA to illuminate human biology and medicine in addition to history. A massive ...

Learn more about new research that analyzed 16,000 ancient genomes and discovered that natural selection hasn’t slowed down.

Over the past 10,000 years, evolution in West Eurasia has been selecting for light skin, red hair and resistance to HIV and ...

Cyanobacteria—ancient microbes that oxygenated Earth and made complex life possible—are still revealing surprises billions of ...

Ancient DNA reveals how farming accelerated human evolution, driving genetic changes over the past 10,000 years.

The idea that modern humans inherited DNA from Neanderthal ancestors is one of the 21st century’s most celebrated discoveries ...

The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, the biological blueprints that make humans … well, human. But it turns out that some of our DNA — about 8% — are the remnants of ancient viruses ...

When Charles Darwin first proposed how evolution works in 1859, it seemed plausible. Tiny changes stack up over time, eventually leading a species to become something entirely different. Aside from ...