Oldest human genome comes from a Denisovan.

200,000-year-old DNA shows our now-extinct cousins mated with Neanderthals.

Neanderthals and moderns mingled early and often.

Study of genes modern humans gave Neanderthals helps explain their end.

Lucy's world.

Fifty years after her discovery, the 3.2-million-year-old fossil still reigns as mother of us all. But she now has rivals.

Chimps remember faces of old friends and family for decades.

Recognition ability rivals all other animals, including humans.

Was this extinct human the first gravedigger-and artist?

Anthropologists hail new Homo naledi fossils but doubt spectacular claims of intentional burial and art.

The woman with the deer pendant.

Pioneering technique gleans DNA from a Stone Age ornament, revealing its last wearer.

Genetic, historic records reveal origin of lager.

Two yeast strains mixed in a German brewing cellar 400 years ago.

Should an also-ran in human evolution get more respect?

Oldest Oldowan tools-seen as a hallmark of our own genus-found with bones of an unexpected hominin.

How the Black Death left its mark on immune system genes.

Study of DNA from medieval victims and survivors finds gene that helped protect people from deadly pathogen.

Ancient DNA reveals Black Death source.

Graves in Kyrgyzstan hold early victims of plague that swept medieval Europe.

Southern roots for the Maya-and the maize that fed them.

Migrants from the south may have helped spread early farming in Central America, ancient DNA suggests.

The calorie counter.

Evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer busts myths about how humans burn calories-and why.