Scientists unravel the mysteries of handprints, a universal form of human expression spanning continents and millennia

An archaeologist overturns assumptions about who may have decorated prehistoric European caves.

Lady Hor, an ancient Egyptian mummy at New York's Brooklyn Museum, is actually Sir Hor, CT scans reveal. Video.

The 2,000-year-old, human-made cave—the largest in Israel—is etched with crosses and may have served as a Christian refuge, monastery, and quarry, experts say.

A newfound vulture-bone flute is likely the world's oldest recognizable musical instrument, a new study says. The 40,000-year-old flute may add to evidence that music helped do in the Neanderthals.

From wayward nuns to convicted witches, the global custom of burying people "prone" was likely used to disrespect or humiliate the dead, according to the first study of its kind.

It may not have had a trunk or Dumbo ears, but the 60-million-year-old elephant ancestor with proto-tusks looms large in mammalian history, a new study says.

Gene studies linking humans to modern African apes are flawed, says a new study that argues we have more physical traits in common with the orangutans of Southeast Asia.

Scientists in Indonesia claim they have unearthed the 200,000-year-old skeleton of a giant elephant that stood more than 13 feet (4 meters) tall. Video.

With giant sperm up to ten times its body length, the male seed shrimp is the beneficiary of an evolutionary adaptation tens of millions of years in the making, a new study says.

Russell Ciochon shook our family tree 15 years ago when he announced a new form of early human ancestor found in China. Now the anthropologist says the fossil is a "mystery ape."

A small, ostrich-like dinosaur found in China may shed light on how bird wings evolved from dinosaur limbs, a new study suggests.

Found with a powerful skull and 50 stomach stones, the 110-million-year-old "parrot dinosaur of the Gobi" gives scientists a rare glimpse into dinosaur diet.

The Inca landmark was a pilgrimage site and a scaled-down version of a mythic landscape, not an imperial estate, according to a controversial new study.

Archaeologists have begun excavating more of the famed terra-cotta warriors, life-size clay figures created to guard the tomb of China's first emperor. Video.