Modern humans belong to the species Homo sapiens, which first emerged at least 300,000 years ago, but possibly as far back as 1 million years ago. And our history goes back much further: the first members of the Homo genus emerged nearly 3 million years ago in Africa.
As technology advances, scientists have been able to piece together how early modern humans arose and migrated around the world, sometimes breeding with close human relatives, such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Even today, humans are still evolving, including in Nepal, where people who have adapted to live in the low-oxygen conditions at high altitudes tend to have more children than those who haven't. Humans may also be evolving through our culture, an idea that learned behaviors we pass on are the "mutations" that can aid survival. Read on to learn more about humans evolved in the past — and continue to do so.
Discover more about human evolution
—Human evolution: Facts about the past 300,000 years of Homo sapiens
—Our mixed-up human family: 8 human relatives that went extinct (and 1 that didn't)
Latest about Human Evolution
Human evolution: Facts about the past 300,000 years of Homo sapiens
Discover interesting facts about the origin of the human species and what makes us different from our ape cousins.
43,000-year-old human fingerprint is world's oldest — and made by a Neanderthal
The discovery of a 43,000-year-old fingerprint in Spain is challenging the idea that Neanderthals were not capable of symbolic art.
140,000 year old bones of our ancient ancestors found on sea floor, revealing secrets of extinct human species
Researchers have recovered Homo erectus bones from the seafloor, which points to an unknown hominin population hunting on land that is now underwater in Southeast Asia.
Ancient jawbone dredged off Taiwan seafloor belongs to mysterious Denisovan, study finds
Researchers have determined that a mysterious jawbone discovered on the seafloor off the coast of Taiwan was Denisovan, proving that the archaic humans were distributed widely over Asia.
Unknown human species in East Asia used sophisticated tools at the same time Neanderthals did in Europe
A stone tool discovery in China rewrites the human story of Middle Paleolithic era in East Asia
A 'landmark finding': Homo naledi buried their dead 250,000 years ago, according to newly updated research
Homo naledi, an extinct human relative with one-third the brain size of ours, buried and may have memorialized their dead, controversial research suggests.
Why modern humans have smaller faces than Neanderthals and chimpanzees
We have smaller faces than Neanderthals and even chimps. A new study may explain how this came to be.
Neanderthals: Who were they and what did our extinct human relatives look like?
Discover interesting facts about who Neanderthals were, whether they mated with modern humans and when they died out.
