SA Special Editions

Unlike our ape cousins, humans require high levels of physical activity to be healthy

Swings between wet and dry landscapes pushed some of our ancestors toward modern traits—and killed off others

Ancient stone tools from Kenya shatter the classic story of when and how humans became innovators

How we became a different kind of animal

A new technique for identifying tiny fragments of fossilized bone is helping to answer key questions about when, where and how human species interacted with one another

Microscopic wear patterns on fossil teeth reveal what our ancestors ate—and provide insights into how climate change shaped human evolution

Recent findings lay bare the origins of human hairlessness—and hint that naked skin was a key factor in the emergence of other human traits

Shortly after Homo sapiens arose, harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species. The small population that gave rise to all humans alive today may have survived by exploiting a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa

What makes language distinctly human

Parts of the brain involved in language and cognition have enlarged greatly over an evolutionary timescale

Recent fossil, archaeological and genetic discoveries are revising the rise of our species

Do humans dance just for fun, or did it help our ancestors survive thousands of years ago?

How we learned to put our fate in one another’s hands

Abstract images in Spanish caves date back 65,000 years—millennia before Homo sapiens set foot in Europe—settling a long-running debate over Neandertal cognition

AI will serve our species, not control it

For 30,000 years our species has been changing remarkably quickly. And we're not done yet

How will future generations make the voyage from our earthly home to the planets and beyond—and what will that mean for our species?

In animal studies, a set of 42 genes involved in neural development, learning and memory, and cognition seems to be associated with monogamy