Long before humans spread across the globe, a deadly disease may have quietly shaped where our ancestors lived—and even how we evolved. New research reveals that malaria didn’t just threaten early ...

A new study looks at thousands of years worth of data and finds that malaria hot spots have played a critical role in shaping where humans settled and either thrived or failed to thrive. For tens of ...

New research published in Science Advances finds that malaria risk steered early human settlement patterns across sub-Saharan Africa for tens of thousands of years, fragmenting populations and ...

Increasing evidence suggests that our species emerged through interactions between populations living in different parts of Africa, rather than from a single birthplace. Until now, however, most ...

For tens of thousands of years, early humans lived in small communities across Africa. New research suggests disease, in particular malaria, may have helped shape where those settlements were located.