Human evolution

Take a tour through seven million years of human evolution and explore the origin of Homo sapiens.

What features make us human? And where, when and why did they evolve?

Many of us carry around two per cent Neanderthal DNA in our genes. Prof Chris Stringer discusses why and what it means.

Our DNA offers us the chance to look into our ancient past. Discover what six celebrities learned when they had their DNA analysed.

This ancient human was once thought to be the first to make stone tools, but is this true?

Fierce debate has raged about the origins of the tiny ancient human species Homo floresiensis, nicknamed the 'hobbit'.

Learn about the longest-surviving human species, which was also the first known to leave Africa.

Australopithecus afarensis is one of the best-known early human relatives thanks to an extraordinary fossil called Lucy.

Meet your long-lost relative and find out why their discovery has had such an impact on our family tree.

A new ancestor of modern humans with the potential to rip up the family tree has been tentatively named.

A huge skull found in China represents a new sister lineage for Homo sapiens.

It has been named Homo luzonensis.

Prof Chris Stringer addresses this controversial question.

Discover the science and art involved in making the Museum's Neanderthal and early modern human models.

Listen to the tale of the first adult Neanderthal skull unearthed and what we've uncovered about our close relative in the past 160 years.

Prof Chris Stringer discusses a Museum fossil that helps explain why Neanderthals looked different to us.

Breeding with Neanderthals allowed our ancestors to better cope with European winters, but also passed on diseases we suffer today.

The fossilised tooth of a nine-year-old child found in Shuqba Cave is the most southerly evidence of Neanderthals ever discovered.

Neanderthals lived fast and died young, developing their teeth earlier than humans to power their rapid growth. 

Discover more about some iconic Neanderthal skulls.

Unearth the one-million-year story of humans in Britain and their struggle to survive in a changing land.

Dr Silvia Bello tells us about the gruesome yet fascinating behaviour of people living in a Somerset cave 14,700 years ago.

Discover how the changing climate of the past million years affected Britain's coastline and the presence of humans.

Follow the progress of a team of scientists as they realise they have uncovered human footprints that are around 900,000 years old.

Bone detectives at the Museum are uncovering the secrets of life and death in London over 5,000 years.

How has London buried its dead over the past 5,000 years?

Human remains from prehistoric to Victorian times reveal how people lived and died in the city.

How scrutinising a person's bones and teeth can disclose who they were, how they lived and even how they died.

The rib bone suggests that the Denisovans may have been living in eastern Asia as recently as 32,000 years ago.

The first modern humans to live in northern Europe arrived more than 45,000 years ago.

Going back to basics could help to unlock the mysteries of our origins.

Professor Chris Stringer, our longest-serving researcher, is set to be honoured for his contributions to human evolution.

TV presenter, author and academic Alice Roberts shares memories of the Museum and how it influenced her fascination with human evolution.

Dental plaque may help to reveal what prehistoric humans ate.

Human bones with cutmarks, breaks and human chewing marks are found across northern Europe. 

Almost 99% of all human ancestors may have been wiped out around 930,000 years ago, a new paper has claimed.

Melting polar ice caps may have pushed some of the first ancient humans out of Europe.

Neanderthals might have been making some of Europe’s oldest art thousands of years before the arrival of humans.

Our ancient relatives may have reached southeast Asia over 10,000 years earlier than thought.

New claims argue that the ancient human species Homo naledi buried their dead and made engravings.

A new technique allows researchers to extract the DNA of people who have handled bone artefacts, giving clues about prehistoric cultures.

Early humans, and an ancient relative, may have been using complex stone tools as early as three million years ago. 

A chink in the armour of giant South American armadillos may have left them vulnerable to human hunting. 

Fossils discovered in Sussex were compared to human remains found in Spain from a similar time period to see if the populations are linked.

The question of how the Neanderthals died out remains one of the biggest mysteries in human evolution.

The sequencing of the oldest human DNA in the UK so far.

Neanderthals may have lived in small groups of around 10 to 20, with females moving between the different communities. 

While their function remains uncertain, the sinuses provide an insight into how ancient human skulls changed over time.

The people after which England is named made up more than three quarters of the nation's genetic ancestry during the early Middle Ages. 

The twelfth century skeletons have provided an unprecedented look at the genetic history of Ashkenazi Jews. 

Measuring almost two metres tall, Leptoptilos robustus would have lived in a unique ecosystem which included the mysterious miniature human relative Homo floresiensis. 

Genyornis newtoni may have become extinct after humans stole and ate its eggs.

The tooth of a young girl living hundreds of thousands of years ago may be from the Denisovans, an extinct hominid species of which very little is known. 

Modern humans arrived in western Europe about 10,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Evidence of increasing carnivory in ancient humans may just be a quirk of sampling.

The genetic landscape of England and Wales was shaken up thousands of years ago as new arrivals redefined its people.

A series of ancient lake beds discovered in Saudi Arabia is showing how the now arid deserts were once green wetlands.

Dating to roughly 78,000 years old, the grave is the oldest human burial discovered in Africa to date. 

When modern humans arrived in the islands of southeast Asia, they may have encountered a range of ancient human species. 

Rather than a violent turnover of populations, there was a merging of communities.

Genetic and fossil records do not reveal a single point where modern humans originated, researchers have found. 

Ancient teeth could be evidence of a hybrid population of Neanderthals and modern humans. 

Bronze Age people were keeping human body parts and preserving them.

Prehistoric societies in the Britain were creating artistic designs on rock as long ago as the late Ice Age.

New research on Turkana Boy is changing our understanding of the species Homo erectus.

Africa and Eurasia were inhabited by a whole range of hominin species just a few hundred thousand years ago.

Ancient fossils are revealing even more about this species' evolution.

New dating suggests they were in southern Greece 210,000 years ago. 

We've been looking at the wrong species. 

The introduction of farming across the world changed the course of human history.

The earliest human drawing, dating back to the Stone Age, has been found in a cave in South Africa. 

Fragments of bone from a Siberian cave reveal ancient human species were mating.

The teeth are helping us to understand how ancient human populations interacted.

A new paper challenges the traditional idea that our species evolved from a single population in one region of Africa.

Remains of young people who were ritually sacrificed have been found from Bronze Age Mesopotamia.

Hollywood star Andy Serkis worked with Museum experts to create an animated Neanderthal.

Ancient DNA reveals that the British population was all but wiped out and replaced roughly 4,400 years ago.

A newly-discovered fossil jawbone has revealed that Homo sapiens had already left Africa 180,000 years ago.

New dating of teeth from a cave in western Sumatra, Indonesia, suggests that modern humans were present in tropical southeast Asia earlier than previously thought.

Museum human origins expert Chris Stringer comments on research that suggest humans arrived in the Americas much earlier than previously thought.

Prof Chris Stringer comments on new research that has identified the earliest known fossils of our species, Homo sapiens.

A patterned prehistoric human bone from an archaeological site in Somerset has revealed that the practices of ancient cannibals were ritualistic, and not simply about survival.

New DNA evidence of interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals raises surprising questions about our species' history. Human origins expert Prof Chris Stringer explains why.

Research on a Museum fossil helps explain why Neanderthal faces looked different to our own.

Modern human teeth that are at least 80,000 years old have been found in China. Museum human origins expert Professor Chris Stringer says the discovery is a 'game-changer'.

Studies on two jawbones, one 2.8 million years old and the other 1.8, give more clues to human origins.

Accurate dating of 40 sites across Europe shows that Neanderthals and humans overlapped by as much as 5,400 years.

A treasure trove of important human fossils missing for decades has been identified among the Museum’s collections.

New research confirms the theory that modern humans and Neanderthals had a common ancestor about 500,000 years ago.