Michael Marshall

For most of our history, humans have been short, a study has found

Ancient footprints that were originally thought to have been made by a bear walking on two legs were actually made by an extinct human species

Trees in tropical forests grow more slowly in years when the nights are warmer than average or dry-season days are unusually hot, according to a 21-year study

Spinal bones of an extinct human relative have been found in lumps of rock blasted out of a South African cave and used to reconstruct one of the most complete back fossils of any hominin

This report highlights the devastating impact of climate change on coastal communities across the globe

The COVID-19 pandemic has had major economic, as well as health, impacts on every nation in the world

One of the most stubborn mysteries in prehistory has finally been reined in. A massive study of ancient DNA has revealed where horses were domesticated: around 2200 BC on the steppes of central Eurasia

Before Christopher Columbus, Vikings were the first Europeans to reach the Americas. We now know to the year when they were there

The capital of the Mongol Empire has been mapped in unprecedented detail. It turns out that the city of Karakorum was far larger than once thought

Today life has conquered every square inch of Earth, but when the planet formed it was a dead rock. How did life get started? (republished from BBC Earth)

A new species of extinct human has been named: Homo bodoensis. The species hasn’t been identified based on new fossils, but on re-examination of old ones

Sponges are arguably the simplest animals and they lack a nervous system, but peculiar cells in their digestive chambers may be evolutionary precursors of neurons

The skull of a small child belonging to a different human species has been found deep in a cave system in South Africa. The team that made the discovery has named the child Leti and believes the skull shows that the Homo naledi species buried their dead

The oldest known land-dwelling microorganisms lived in estuaries close to erupting volcanoes

A sea cucumber that lives in extreme deep-sea environments has had its genome sequenced. This revealed that many of its genes have been altered