Evolution (Page 2)

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

Latest in Evolution

small kitten sitting on a golden retriever's head.

Why some cats love dogs—despite the risk

By Clarissa Brincat

a chicken with brown and white stripes and large orange sacks on the sides of its head

A rare prairie chicken shakes his butt all day to attract ladies

By Laura Baisas

Rough thicktail scorpion (Parabuthus raudus). Paratuthus scorpions' venom is quick-acting, so they do not need to rely as much on their pincers to capture prey.

Metal-reinforced scorpions evolved to kill

an illustration of a woolly mammoth with brown fur and two large tusks and a trunk walking around a snow landscape

We’re still recovering from losing the woolly mammoth

By Laura Baisas

two sea otters in the ocean with one with its paw up

Why playing is no laughing matter for otters

By Heide Island

a sea turtle on a vet's table

Meet Earl Grey, the sea turtle with a wild family tree

By Margherita Bassi

Illustration of giant, ancient finned octopus

65-foot-long octopuses ruled ancient oceans

a penguin with black and white feathers and long yellow feathers on top of its eyes

Macaroni penguins are surprisingly buff

By Laura Baisas

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took this selfie at a location nicknamed "Mary Anning" after a 19th century English paleontologist. This was the site of the chemical experiment uncovering diverse organic molecules on Mars, in the Glen Torridon region, which scientists believe was a site where ancient conditions would have been favorable to supporting life, if it ever was present.

Curiosity finds molecules needed for ancient life on Mars

Illustration of ancient tubular polyps on the ocean floor

450-million year old jellyfish ancestor looks like a flailing carwash tubeman

an illustration of an extinct hedgehog like animal

New megafauna looked like spiky, 30-pound hamster

By Margherita Bassi

a naked mole rat. it is a small, pinkish colored and hairless rodent with large front teeth

Not all naked mole-rat queens go out in a blaze of bloody violence

By Laura Baisas

a small spider attacking a cockroach

New spider named for Pink Floyd devours bugs 6x its size

By Laura Baisas

A portrait-style photograph shows a life-like reconstruction of an early human ancestor, Australopithecus afarensis, against a dark, blurred background. The figure is shown from the chest up, with its head turned to look over its shoulder toward the camera. It has prominent brow ridges, a flat nose, and large, dark, expressive eyes. Its skin is a dark tan, and its head and body are covered in short, reddish-brown hair.

Why humans don’t have tails

By Sara Kiley Watson

Lystrosaurus embryo within its partially preserved shell , reconstruction of the animal. Credit: Professor Julien Benoit and Sophie Vrard

Proto-mammals laid eggs, paleontologists finally confirm

Close up of braces on Hispanic boy's teeth. He's wearing a blue collared shirt and there's light streaming in behind him. All we see is the bottom of his nose and chin.

Ancient humans didn’t need braces. So why do we?

By Popular Science Team

Fish climbing upstream against rock wall

These tiny fish climb waterfall cliffs for 10 hours

an illustration of a prehistoric spider relative

500-million-year-old spider relative has claws where it shouldn’t

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of Neanderthal tribe butchering large elephant near lake

Neanderthals hunted giant elephants in Europe

An artist’s interpretation of mammals that lived during the last Ice Age. Fossils from similar species of an armadillo-like pampathere (bottom left) and giant ground sloth (background) were among those found in a recent study of a Texas water cave. Credit: Adapted from artwork by Jaime Chirinos

Giant armadillo, mastodon, and sloth fossils found in flooded Texas cave

One of the dogs sampled in the paper from the Skateholm site in Sweden, buried alongside a human.

Europe’s first domesticated dogs arrived over 3,000 years earlier than we thought

By Laura Baisas

two mating frogs with the male grasping on to the female

Even humans love a good mating call

By Laura Baisas

A conceptual photograph of a young woman with light-colored hair and a tattoo on her forearm, wearing a white t-shirt against a plain white background. The image uses a multiple-exposure effect to create several overlapping, translucent silhouettes of her figure, conveying a sense of disorientation, dizziness, or blurred vision. She has a pained or nauseated facial expression and is resting her head against her hand.

Why some people get motion sickness—and others don’t

By Laura Kiniry

A close-up photograph of a Halobates, an ocean water strider, resting on the surface of the water. The insect has a long, slender dark body and very thin, wire-like legs that create slight indentations on the water's surface tension. Its reflection is visible on the surface, and the background is a soft, out-of-focus light blue and white.

Do any bugs live in the ocean? Short answer: Not really.

By Andrew Coletti

Illustration showing ancient hominid drinking water at river's edge with crocodile lurking nearby in the water

An odd-nosed crocodile ate our prehistoric ancestors

a black bird sits on a tree

These birds listen to their parents to avoid being eaten

By Margherita Bassi

purple crystals

Humans’ love of crystals goes back at least 6 million years

By Laura Baisas

Illustration showing Tanyka amnicola in life, eating underwater plants.

Bizarro salamander ancestor was an evolutionary oddball

Two dogs sitting in half open door looking curiously to the left

Dogs act like toddlers when trying to help humans

a large goat with grey fur and large horns

Ireland’s native goats date back to Bronze Age

By Laura Baisas

Close-up of aedes aegypti mosquito sucking blood from human skin, transmitting dangerous diseases like dengue fever, zika virus, and chikungunya, Chumphon in thailand.

Mosquitoes have been sucking our blood for 1.8 million years

a chimpanzee laying on its back in a forest

Chimpanzees love alcohol and their pee proves it

By Laura Baisas

The Adorant figurine from Geißenklösterle Cave, approximately 38,000 years old, consists of a small ivory plate bearing an anthropomorphic figure and multiple sequences of notches and dots. The application of these marks suggests a notational system, most notably in the rows of dots on the back of the plate.

Earliest known writing dates back over 40,000 years

Spinosaurus mirabilis illustration

New dinosaur discovered in Sahara desert was a horned ‘hell heron’

African striped mouse and pups

Biologists discover gene that may determine ‘good’ and ‘bad’ dads

Artistic reconstruction of a Late Pleistocene cave lion overlooking Mount Fuji, Japan. Credit: Velizar Simeonovski

Prehistoric Japan was home to cave lions—not tigers

a litter of naked mole rats

4 wild ways animals breed

By Laura Baisas

Example of paired images used during free-view eyetracking study. These image pairs focused on participant reactions to spider versus other arthropods – (A) spider versus butterfly, (B) spider versus insect, (C) spider eyes versus insect eyes, (D) spider versus non-spider arachnid, and (E) spider versus myriapod. We also included a paired image of (F) scorpion versus non-scorpion arachnid to gain insight into whether participants respond differently to spiders versus scorpions (e.g., d vs. f).

Psychologists made people look at spiders. They didn’t like it.

Close up of man's hand on chin while he's thinking

Humans really don’t need chins

a zookeper places a piece of apple inside of an elephant's trunk

Elephants are smart. So are their whiskers.

By Laura Baisas

Hands warming near a bonfire at night

Fire may have altered human DNA

Artist illustration of Archaeopteryx

Weird bird mouths go all the way back to the first avian dinosaur

a green caterpillar on a plant's stem

Caterpillars use tiny hairs to hear

By Margherita Bassi

Illustration of sailbacked dinosaur vomiting stomach contents

Oldest fossilized dinosaur vomit discovered in Germany

an illustration of a large shark holding a flag of the state of maryland.

Megalodon could become Maryland’s official state shark

By Laura Baisas

Comparison of short green and long red lipstick vine flowers

This odd vine contradicts long-standing evolutionary theory

a shark with brownish yellow scales and spots curled up among coral

‘Walking sharks’ lay eggs without breaking a sweat

By Margherita Bassi

Group of red kangaroos running in Australia

550-pound Ice Age kangaroos could still hop

Yellow bananas arranged against a blue background

Penis size may matter more to men than women

a pod of white beluga whales swimming off the coast of Alaska

The swinging sex lives of Alaska’s beluga whales

By Laura Baisas

A cross section of a dog's heart showing heartworm

This deadly dog ‘spaghetti’ has ancient origins

By Laura Baisas

a brown cow with a large stick in her mouth and mountains in the background

Veronika the Cow shocks scientists by using a tool

By Laura Baisas

Three harvest mice playing around and entwining their tails together to stop them from falling.

Female mice often have multiple sexual partners—for survival

By Margherita Bassi

a young chimpanzee hanging upside down in a tree

Baby chimpanzees like to free fall through trees

By Margherita Bassi

the remains of an ice age wolf

14,000-year-old woolly rhinoceros DNA extracted from wolf’s stomach

By Laura Baisas

A pair of Sacabambaspis fish, around 14 inches (35 centimeters) in length, which had distinct, forward-facing eyes and an armored head. No fossils of animals like Sacabambaspis from after the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction event have been discovered.

Mass death paved the way for the Age of Fishes

By Laura Baisas

Close up of Greenland shark with copepod attached to eye

Dissected Greenland shark eyeballs could help humans see forever

a couple holding hands as the sun sets over water

Why humans live and die for love

By Dr. Justin R. Garcia

An overhead view shows a group of diverse hands, with varying skin tones, arranged in a circle against a plain white background. The palms are open and facing upward, with some hands overlapping, creating a sense of unity and community. Some individuals wear rings or a beaded bracelet, and the sleeves of various shirts—plaid, denim, and solid colors—are visible at the edges of the frame.

Why do we have five fingers and toes?

By Laura Kiniry

a close up of a turtle with its head in its shell

Butt breathing and 5 other ways animals stay warm in winter

By Laura Baisas

a large brown bear in italy

Bears in Italy inbreed more, but are less aggressive

By Margherita Bassi

3D scan cross-section of an ant

Weak ants conquered Earth using sheer numbers

several red and beige mushroom-like plants growing at the base of a tree

Asexual parasitic plants break biology’s rules

By Laura Baisas

Artist's impression of sparks from flint and pyrite

Neanderthals harnessed fire 350,000 years earlier than previously thought