Evolution

The latest science on how life has adapted and changed over generations—and how new species come to be.

Latest in Evolution

an illustration of a striped tasmanian tiger with sharp teeth eating the body of a wombat-like creature
Environment

New bone-crushing Tasmanian tiger species dug up by paleontologists

By Laura Baisas

a pterosaur speices flaps its wings to fly, while another uses them to soar
Science

‘Remarkable’ fossils offer clues to perplexing pterosaur question

By Laura Baisas

several loaves of golden rustic looking bread on a table
Environment

How farming helped humans evolve to get more energy from carbs

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of Sasayamagnomus saegusai
Science

Tiny triceratops ancestor named after gnomes

By Andrew Paul

an orange starfish with four arms of similar size and one shorter arm sits on some rocks
Environment

How starfish lose limbs (on purpose) and survive

By Laura Baisas

a moth with a yellow body, pink legs, and pink and yellow wings sits on a green leaf
Environment

The ‘disco’ gene could help moths tell time

By Laura Baisas

an insect lays on its back with its abdomen and legs in the air. it is playing dead to trick predators
Environment

Antlion larvae can ‘play dead’ for more than an hour–then, things get random

By Laura Baisas

Anatomically accurate sculpture of a dodo
Science

The dodo was faster and smarter than you think

By Andrew Paul

Blind cavefish
Science

This eyeless cavefish grows extra taste buds on its head

By Andrew Paul

Specimen photographed with autofluorescence under confocal microscope at 639 nm; different colors indicate z-depth, with violet to red gradient representing the shallowest to deepest planes, respectively.
Animals

Extremely rare tardigrade fossils seen in unprecedented detail

By Andrew Paul

a lemur in an enclosure stares into a takeout container
Animals

Lemurs use smell, social cues, and superior memories to find treats

By Laura Baisas

four different types of corn. one is long and yellow, the other is shorter and yellow. the other two are shorter and black
Environment

Love corn? Thank interbreeding

By Laura Baisas

human bones belonging to an small, extinct, early human secies
Archaeology

New ‘Hobbit’ fossils discovered on Indonesia’s Flores island

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a small penguin with light black, yellow, and white feathers on a new zealand beach
Animals

Tiny fossil reveals when penguins evolved their surprisingly useful wings

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of Shishania aculeata as it would have appeared in life as viewed from the top, side and bottom (left to right). This early mollusk lived about 514 million years ago.
Animals

A ‘rotting little plastic bag’ was actually a 514 million-year-old fossil

By Laura Baisas

Artist’s impression of the lobate macrofossils living 2.1 billion years ago in a shallow marine inland sea created by the collision of two continents.
Animals

Study claims life tried to evolve 1.5 billion years earlier than we thought

By Andrew Paul

a firefly with its bottom half illuminated
Environment

A new theory on why fireflies glow—and why they need help

By Laura Baisas

dead bird specimens with blue and green plumage in museum storage
Animals

All living birds share an ‘iridescent’ ancestor

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of an long cylindrical arthropod. it has big blue eyes, a body that looks like a taco shell, several short red legs, and a tail
Animals

This taco-shaped critter is a big (evolutionary) deal

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of two mouse-like animals in a forest, with a stegosaurus walking by and a mosquito flying over them
Animals

Baby teeth reveal surprisingly long lifespans of small Jurassic mammals

By Laura Baisas

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