The oldest unequivocal evidence of upright walking in the human lineage are footprints discovered at Laetoli, Tanzania in 1978, by paleontologist Mary Leakey and her team. The bipedal trackways date to 3.7 million years ago. Another set of mysterious footprints was partially excavated at nearby Site A in 1976 but dismissed as possibly being made by a bear. A recent re-excavation of the Site A footprints at Laetoli and a detailed comparative analysis reveal that the footprints were made by an early human— a bipedal hominin, according to a new study reported in "Nature."

Archaeologists from the University of Gothenburg have concluded an excavation of two tombs in the Bronze Age city of Hala Sultan Tekke in Cyprus. The finds include over 150 human skeletons and close to 500 objects – including gold jewellery, gemstones and ceramics – from around 1350 BCE.

A simple change in the way donor cells are processed can maximize a single cell’s production of extracellular vesicles, which are small nanoparticles naturally secreted by cells, according to new research.

For the first time, an international team of experts, among them a researcher from Tel Aviv University, formulated a globally-applicable ethical code for research of ancient human DNA.

An international team led by the Universities of Vienna and Tübingen and the Max Planck Society has identified five new human fossils from Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. The remains, which include three Denisovans and one Neanderthal, were found in a secure and well dated ~200,000-year-old context. Surrounded by archaeological remains such as stone tools and food refuse, the finds shed light on the adaptation strategies of these early hominins as they spread across Eurasia.

Archaeologists have unearthed the first Roman mosaic of its kind in the UK.