Archived Blog Posts

In the town of Oldenzaal in the Netherlands, 30,000 skeletons were dug up during an archaeological dig around an old church.  Archaeologists wondered if any modern Oldenzaalers would be related to any of these buried people.  Comparison of Y-DNA from the...

For years, scientists have debated where dogs came from. Did wolves first forge their special relationship with humans in Europe, or in Asia? The answer, according to a new study, is yes. This week in Science, researchers report that genetic...

But we are all special, which means none of us are. If you’re vaguely of European extraction, you are also the fruits of Charlemagne’s prodigious loins. A fecund ruler, he sired at least 18 children by motley wives and concubines, including Charles...

Advances in DNA sequencing technology have given us important new tools for studying the great human diasporas and the history of indigenous populations. Now we are seeing its adoption in new areas, including forensics and archeology. The case of...

New DNA research suggests that European and Asian (Eurasian) peoples originated when early Africans moved north - through the region that is now Egypt - to expand into the rest of the world. The findings, published in the American Journal of Human...