Each of us tells a story about who we are, often tracing our identity back through an imagined line of ancestors. Though identity is fundamentally cultural, we tend to anchor it in biology—in the idea ...

An international team of biologists, geneticists, anthropologists and biochemists has found, through genetic analysis, that the migration patterns of ancient Mexican civilizations were much more ...

New study shows ancient DNA evidence of migration in Peru's Chincha Valley, proving North Coast settlers arrived centuries ...

Long-distance migration along Peru's Pacific coast began at least 800 years ago, centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire ...

Ancient DNA reveals people traveled more than 435 miles along Peru’s coast centuries before the Inca Empire, reshaping ancient history.

In the 19th century, archaeologists in England unearthed remains that dated to the era after Roman rule, which ended around 400 C.E. The items revealed a shift from Roman artifacts to those ...

Ancient DNA reveals how family bonds helped Andean communities survive climate crisis, disease, and the pressures of early ...

A major question in paleoanthropology—the field dedicated to studying human evolution—asks how humans migrated. Most research suggests that modern humans evolved in Africa, though of course we ended ...

A landmark genomic study of Indigenous Americans has uncovered evidence of a third migration wave into South America about 1,300 years ago, reshaping prevailing settlement theories. Drawing on 128 ...

Fig. 1 | Map of the study area. A. Locations of the Chincha Valley and other Andean sites referenced in this study that yielded ancient DNA data. B. The archaeological sites under investigation for ...

Family trees provide a clear example of how DNA evolves as it passes down generations. But it also reveals clues to the complicated history of human migration. Take the Indigenous peoples of the ...

Matthew Williams, academic affiliate assistant professor of biology at Penn State (left), and Christian Huber, assistant professor of biology at Penn State, are part of a team that used sophisticated ...