Lead exposure may have spelled evolutionary success for humans—and extinction for our ancient cousins—but other scientists ...

Several hominid species were consistently exposed to lead for almost two million years, which may have given modern humans a ...

An international study changes the view that exposure to the toxic metal lead is largely a post-industrial phenomenon. The ...

Digital reconstruction of a crushed skull from an ancient human could rewrite the timeline of human evolution, according to ...

When we think of lead poisoning, most of us imagine modern human-made pollution, paint, old pipes, or exhaust fumes.

Decades after a skull was unearthed in China’s Hubei Province, researchers said they suspect a much earlier and more complex ...

Lead poisoning isn’t just an industrial-age problem. A new study reveals our ancestors, including Neanderthals, were exposed ...

A small blood gene difference made Neanderthal pregnancies with modern humans risky, possibly contributing to their disappearance.

The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, the biological blueprints that make humans … well, human. But it turns out that some of our DNA — about 8% — are the remnants of ancient viruses ...