A newer dating technique using cosmogenic isotopes finds Australopithecus remains from the Sterkfontein caves to be about 1 million years older than previous estimates, potentially changing scientists’ understanding of humanity’s origins.
While malaria control strategies have focused on mosquitoes’ nocturnal activity, almost one-third of bites occur while the sun is up, a new study estimates.
The oldest DNA yet isolated from humans in Africa reveals long-range migrations around 50,000 years ago, which likely played a role in the Middle to Later Stone Age transition.
The Scientist interviews evolutionary biologist Carles Vilà about how a large genomic inversion detected in common quail affects the birds’ physical characteristics and migratory behaviors.
Researchers find that the protective outer layer that lungfish make to survive extended dry periods—once thought to be a simple mucus shell—contains immune cells that trap bacteria and protect the animals from infection.
More than two-thirds of mammals in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula went extinct during the Eocene-Oligocene transition some 30 million years ago, a study finds.
Ebola virus was detected in samples from a child who died last week, the World Health Organization and Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ministry of Health announce.
Tired of dancing to the tunes of international funders, and doubtful that long-promised national grants will come, a handful of African biomedical scientists have turned to private investors to bankroll their dreams of autonomy in the lab.
Impressions that ancient brains left in fossilized skulls reveal that the first human ancestors to migrate out of Africa had much more primitive brains than previously thought.