Towards the Origin of America's First Settlers

The international scientific community faces the exciting challenge of discovering the origin of America's first settlers. A new publication shapes some alternatives to the hypothesis of a single migration movement, as a model to describe the origin of America's population.

'Out of Africa' Story Being Rewritten Again

Our early human ancestors may have left Africa more recently than thought, between 62,000 and 95,000 years ago, suggests a new analysis of genetic material from fossil skeletons.

Out of Africa date brought forward

By Lin Edwards

(Phys.org) —A study on human mitochondrial DNA has led to a new estimate of the time at which humans first began to migrate out of Africa, which was much later than previously thought.

Fossil human traces line to modern Asians

Researchers have been able to trace a line between some of the earliest modern humans to settle in China and people living in the region today.

A Relative from the Tianyuan Cave: Humans Living 40,000 Years Ago Likely Related to Many Present-Day Asians and Native Americans

Jan. 21, 2013 — Ancient DNA has revealed that humans living some 40,000 years ago in the area near Beijing were likely related to many present-day Asians and Native Americans.

What Did Our Ancestors Look Like? Hair and Eye Color Can Be Determined for Ancient Human Remains

Jan. 11, 2013 — A new method of establishing hair and eye colour from modern forensic samples can also be used to identify details from ancient human remains, finds a new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Investigative Genetics. The HIrisPlex DNA analysis system was able to reconstruct hair and eye colour from teeth up to 800 years old, including the Polish General Wladyslaw Sikorski (1881 to 1943) confirming his blue eyes and blond hair.

Looking to an Explorer's Bones for Answers

by Xavier Bosch on 17 June 2003, 12:00 AM
Nobody knows for sure where Christopher Columbus came from and where he was buried. But an international team of forensic experts hopes that science can end a half-millennium of speculation.