migration
Vagrant birds and ancient human habitats
People killed the Carolina parakeet. An inquiry into their historic population range helps illustrate the challenges of understanding ancient human populations.
![A painting showing several green parakeets in varied poses](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/12/carolina-parakeets-detail-audubon-wikimedia.jpg)
When did humankind's last common ancestor live? A surprisingly short time ago
The lines of genealogy of living people converge quickly into the past. Our last genealogical common ancestor lived within the last few thousand years.
![Abstract image showing lines connected into a large network on a parchment background](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/06/genealogy-abstract-books-on-rickety-shelves.jpg)
Geneticists work to understand how skeletons wound up in a mysterious Himalayan lake
Reviewing new work that reveals migrants from several historic periods in the skeletons surrounding this lake in India.
![Roopkund Lake surrounded by snowy rocks](/content/images/size/w1460/2022/01/roopkund-lake-abhijeet-rane-flickr-22404199985_a0de81a30a_o.jpg)
Should archaeologists really fear and loathe geneticists?
An article in Nature focuses on the tension between archaeologists and ancient DNA specialists.
Modern human origins was more interesting than a single point of dispersal
A study of SNP variation across Africa enables us to look at a structured ancestral population long before 100,000 years ago.
How much was migration a creative force for culture change?
An essay by Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd explores the way that cultures evolved by contact.