Latest Evolution Stories
This dinosaur dove like a duck
A key to lizard evolution was buried in a museum cupboard for 70 years
The newest member of the T. rex family has piercing eyes
Eyeless army ants chomped their way through Europe millions of years ago
Oldest evidence of digested plants in a roughly 575-million-year-old creature’s gut
These pleasantly plump salamanders dominated the Cretaceous period
Gigantic fossils hint at super-sized 7,000-pound sea turtle
Sex, not violence, could’ve sealed the fate of the Neanderthals
A Scottish fossil is helping scientists fill the gaps in the lizard family tree
Argonaut octopuses are enigmatic—down to their self-made ‘shells’
The rare case of a lioness with a mane
Geologists are searching for when the Earth took its first breath
Our long childhoods could be linked to food-gathering skills
Billions of years ago, Mars may have been bustling with climate-changing microbes
This pterosaur ancestor was a tiny, flightless dog-like dinosaur
Here’s how life on Earth might have formed out of thin air and water
Below Madagascar, cave divers surface secrets of the past
Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to scientist who sequenced Neanderthal genome
How the logic of ‘winter selection’ shaped centuries of bad science
The slimy history of human beings and mucus
Skull research sheds light on human-Neanderthal interbreeding
Biofluorescent snailfish brave Arctic waters with built-in antifreeze
Jumping spiders might be able to sleep—perchance to dream
Cushy feet supported sauropods’ gigantic bodies
Pandas weren’t always bamboo fiends
Ancient milk-drinkers were just fine with their lactose intolerance–until famine struck
A centuries-old horse tooth holds clues to the mystery of the Chincoteague ponies
Tiktaalik’s ancient cousin decided life was better in the water
Do cats and dogs remember their past?
Mammals’ ears may hold the secret to warm-bloodedness
Megalodons liked to snack on sperm whale snouts
When insects got wings, evolution really took off
Ancient wolf DNA is being used to sniff out where our love story with dogs began
The mites that breed on our faces are getting clingier by the day
We finally know why we grow wisdom teeth as adults
What an ancient jawbone reveals about polar bear evolution
A viral descendent of the deadly 1918 flu is probably still going around
The biggest myth about dog breeds
Crows and ravens flexed smarts and strength for world dominance
Shifting ancient climates shaped human evolution
An archerfish family tree is the best shot yet at the evolution of sniper fish
Dogs know exactly what they’re doing when they give you the ‘puppy eyes’
Meet the ancient owl that embraced daylight
How vampire bats evolved to get the most out of their bloody diets
Ancient sea creatures pioneered the gallop
Slap another cephalopod on the vampire squid’s family tree
Classifying invertebrates is hard. Butts can help.
A closer look at E.O. Wilson’s archives reveals support for racist research
The secret to these bats’ hunting prowess is deep within their ears
Eating meat may not have been as crucial to human evolution as we thought
Eastern Africa’s oldest human fossils are more ancient than we realized
This 90-million-year-old crab had the eyes of a hunter
If that asteroid had been 30 seconds late, dinosaurs might rule the world and humans probably wouldn’t exist
These ancient marine reptiles got very big, very fast
This 120-million-year-old bird could stick out its tongue
Animals have an internal ‘GPS’ that tells body parts where to grow
Baby seals sing bass notes when they want attention
Inflatable tentacles and silk hats: See how caterpillars trick predators to survive
Is it time to change the way we talk about human evolution?
These female hummingbirds don flashy male feathers to avoid unwanted harassment
Here’s how hagfish slime gets 10,000 times bigger in 0.4 seconds
Our four-legged ancestors evolved from sea to land astonishingly quickly
The weirdest things we learned this week: Falcon sex hats and buying human skulls on Instagram
An ancient era of global warming could hint at our scorching future