Iron Age study targets British DNA mystery

13,000-year-old human footprints discovered in British Columbia

Thirteen thousand years ago, a small group of people walked on a beach on one of the thousands of low islands off the coast of British Columbia. These walkers were some of the first humans to settle here.

Five new ancient genomes tell us about Neanderthal tribes

The researchers, led by Mateja Hajdinjak at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, extracted tiny amounts of bone or tooth powder—sometimes as little as 9mg—and used a chemical process to remove modern genetic contamination. They also checked for the telltale signs of degradation found in ancient DNA.

The richest American family hired terrorists to shoot sleeping families