Stories by Ewen Callaway

“Kennewick Man” sequencing points to Native American ancestry

The Australopithecine lived about 3.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia, around the same time as Australopithecus afarensis

The influence of the “microbiome” on our health has become a hot topic in recent years but privacy issues are now being raised

A catalogue of the genetic differences between woolly mammoths and elephants reveals how the ice age giants braved the cold

A 2.8-million-year mandible and a digital model of a key fossil paint a complicated picture of the genus Homo

The discovery shows, for the first time, that Homo sapiens was living in the Near East at the same time as Neandertals

The Mongolian leader left a strong footprint in the Y chromosomes of his modern descendants, but he was not the only one

The genetic sequencing of cats has now officially taken off

Absorbent makes brain tissue bigger, enabling optical microscopes to resolve features down to 60 nanometers

Trained macaques studied themselves in mirrors, fueling debate over animals' capacity for self-recognition

The candidate drug will be tested next to see how well it can help prevent infection

Gut bacteria and strong gastric juices show how the birds can live on decaying flesh.

An analysis of the oldest known DNA from a human reveals a mysterious group that roamed northern Asia

The apes' genes explain their flexibility—and why their chromosomes are so peculiar

Digital mapping shatters the image of Stonehenge as a desolate site that was visited by few

Genome of the robusta variety reveals that caffeine-making evolved more than once, in part because pollinators developed a caffeine habit

The fish control the range of their potent water pistols by adjusting their mouths

Criss-cross patterns deep in a Gibraltan cave suggest that the species had minds capable of abstract artistic expression.

Carbon-dating improvements show that Neandertals disappeared from Europe much earlier than thought

More than 100 scientists have signed a published letter asserting that author Nicholas Wade misappropriated their work for the arguments he made in A Troublesome Inheritance

A new arachnid family tree suggests that many spider species evolved away from web-weaving

The research community mourns the killing of Joep Lange, who was among the passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight shot down over Ukraine

In order to avoid predators, scarlet kingsnakes in North Carolina have evolved to more closely resemble a poisonous lookalike no longer found in the area

The publication of the draft genetic sequence of a comb jelly reveals a nervous system like no other