The first members of the human lineage lack many features that distinguish us from other primates. Although it has been a difficult quest, we are closer than ever to knowing the mother of us all.

Sixty-five million years ago, as the last of the non-avian dinosaurs were going extinct, our earliest recognized ancestors appeared in the fossil record. When, where, and why did they evolve?

For many of us, it may be hard to imagine that if we went back far enough in time—more than 55 million years, when the first primates are thought to have lived—that our great-a-million-times ...

Modern tarsiers are tree-dwelling primates that live on Southeast Asian islands. The tarsier lineage split off from the anthropoids, the lineage that gave rise to monkeys, apes, and humans, just ...

Jef Akst was managing editor of The Scientist, where she started as an intern in 2009 after receiving a master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses.

“Characteristics such as a larger body mass and an increased reliance on leaves allowed Mixodectes to thrive in the same trees likely shared with other early primate relatives.” Mixodectids ...

The ability to see the world in color is one most people take for granted. But our earliest primate ancestors lacked this ability. When and how did we gain the ability to see the world the way we do?