During the Stone Age in what is now western Cameroon, four children who perished before their prime were buried in a natural rock shelter. Now, thousands of years later, an analysis of the ancient DNA ...

Learn how genomes from 28 ancient individuals show that Homo sapiens lived in southern Africa in near isolation for hundreds of millennia — preserving rare genetic variants that still exist today. A ...

Tens of thousands of years ago, humans sought refuge from the elements in a rocky hollow near the crook of Africa’s western coast. They crafted stone tools, ate fresh kills or gathered plants, and ...

Elizabeth Sawchuk receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Jessica Thompson has received funding from the Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society, ...