Researchers have identified tiny genetic “switches” that appear to play a surprisingly large role in human language ability.

Humans' unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago, according to a survey of genomic evidence. As such, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ago. It is a deep ...

Scientists from China have identified the existence of human-like speech pathways in the brains of marmoset monkeys, ...

Some researchers argue that the average human brain began shrinking 3,000 to 10,000 years ago, long before smartphones, ...

The Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) fascinate researchers and the general public alike. They remain central to debates about the nature of the genus Homo (the broad biological classification that ...

Language has long been considered a uniquely human trait, with features that mark it out as distinct from the communication of all other species. However, research published in Science has uncovered ...

This is an extract from Our Human Story, our newsletter about the revolution in archaeology. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every month. If I tried to recap all the new fossils, new methods and ...