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An extinct prehistoric plague lineage of Yersinia pestis has been documented from Central Europe to Asia during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Here, Swali et al. show that this lineage spread to Europe’s northwestern periphery by sequencing three ~4000 year-old Yersinia pestis genomes from Britain.

DNA from ancient wolves spanning 100,000 years sheds light on wolves’ evolutionary history and the genomic origin of dogs.

Twigstats, a method for ancestry reconstruction, provides high-resolution genetic histories and movement patterns of people living in Europe during the first millennium ce.

Maize originated in southern Mexico from domestication of the wild grass teosinte, and diffused throughout the Americas. Sequenced DNA from archaeological samples spanning 6,000 years, documents the diffusion route and reveals the genes that were specifically selected for climatic and cultural adaptation to the US Southwest.

The authors report genetic, archaeological and stable isotopic data from two late Palaeolithic individuals in Britain, from Gough's Cave and Kendrick's Cave. The individuals differ not only in their ancestry but also their diets, ecologies and mortuary practices, revealing diverse origins and lifeways among inhabitants of late Pleistocene Britain.

Genomes from hunter-gatherers dated to around 9,000 years ago reveal two early postglacial migrations into Scandinavia: an initial migration from the south and a second coastal migration north of the Scandinavian ice sheet.

Highly endangered species like the Sumatran rhinoceros are at risk from inbreeding. Five historical and 16 modern genomes from across the species range show mutational load, but little evidence for local adaptation, suggesting that future inbreeding depression could be mitigated by assisted gene flow among populations.

Genome-wide data for the three oldest known modern human remains in Europe, dated to around 45,000 years ago, shed light on early human migrations in Europe and suggest that mixing with Neanderthals was more common than is often assumed.

Siberian mammoth genomes from the Early and Middle Pleistocene subepochs reveal adaptive changes and a key hybridization event, highlighting the value of deep-time palaeogenomics for studies of speciation and long-term evolutionary trends.

Analysis of ancient genomic data of 51 humans from Eurasia dating from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago provides insight into the population history of pre-Neolithic Europe and support for recurring migration and population turnover in Europe during this period.

Deep whole-genome sequencing of 300 individuals from 142 diverse populations provides insights into key population genetic parameters, shows that all modern human ancestry outside of Africa including in Australasians is consistent with descending from a single founding population, and suggests a higher rate of accumulation of mutations in non-Africans compared to Africans since divergence.

Draft genomes of two south-central Siberian individuals dating to 24,000 and 17,000 years ago show that they are genetically closely related to modern-day western Eurasians and Native Americans but not to east Asians; the results have implications for our understanding of the origins of Native Americans.

In ancient cultures without a writing system, it is difficult to infer the basis of status and rank. Here the authors analyse ancient DNA from nine presumed elite individuals buried successively over a 300-year period at Chaco Canyon, and show evidence of matrilineal relationships.

A Review describes the three key phases that define the origins of modern human ancestry, and highlights the importance of analysing both palaeoanthropological and genomic records to further improve our understanding of our evolutionary history.

A sex chromosome identification method for ancient DNA revealed six individuals who lived with chromosomal aneuploidies in Britain from ~ 2,500 to 250 years ago. Genomic and osteological information was combined to shed light on their lives.

Analysis of ancient DNA from four individuals who lived in Vanuatu and Tonga between 2,300 and 3,100 years ago suggests that the Papuan ancestry seen in present-day occupants of this region was introduced at a later date.

Previous genetic studies have suggested that the Americas were peopled by a single founding population of Eurasian origin, but a genome-wide study of 30 Native American groups shows that Amazonian Native Americans also have a second source of ancestry that is deeply related to indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andaman Islanders.

Genetic similarity among late Neanderthals is predicted well by their geographical ___location, and although some of these Neanderthals were contemporaneous with early modern humans, their genomes show no evidence of recent gene flow from modern humans.

DNA analysis of ancient individuals and modern populations suggests that the population history of North America can be explained by the admixture of two ancestral lineages—Palaeo-Eskimos and First Peoples.

In this Perspective, a group representing a range of stakeholders makes the case for a set of five proposed globally applicable ethical guidelines for ancient human DNA research.

Analysis of DNA from a 37,000–42,000-year-old modern human from Romania reveals that 6–9% of the genome is derived from Neanderthals, with the individual having a Neanderthal ancestor as recently as four to six generations back.

The first individual genome from the Clovis culture is presented; the origins and genetic legacy of the people who made Clovis tools have been under debate, and evidence here suggests that the individual is more closely related to all Native American populations than to any others, refuting the hypothesis that the Clovis people arrived via European (Solutrean) migration to the Americas.

This Primer outlines the best ways to find, handle and analyse ancient DNA from various sources. The authors summarize ethical considerations and the importance of working closely with all stakeholders, including archaeologists, curators and descendant communities.