Evolution (Page 5)

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

Latest in Evolution

green and red grapes

If dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct, we may not have delicious grapes

By Laura Baisas

Five of the comb jelly species featured in a new study on how their cells adapt to water pressures. Red coloration as seen in the two specimens at right is common among deep-sea animals.

Comb jellies won’t give into the extreme pressures of deep-sea life

By Laura Baisas

Yes, humans are still evolving

By Lauren Leffer

an illustration of three long-necked and marine reptiles swimming with four paddle shaped limbs in an ancient sea

This giant polar reptile once stalked an ancient super-ocean

By Laura Baisas

a school of yellow and white swim near a reef

Fish swimming together fare better in turbulent waters

By Laura Baisas

An artistic life reconstruction of Genyornis newtoni, the last of the dromornithids, at the water’s edge

Giant 500-pound geese once honked around the Australian outback

By Laura Baisas

a green stick insect blending into a green plant

Chance or pattern? Stick insects show repeatable evolution in action

By Laura Baisas

A proboscis monkey in a mangrove conservation forest in Tarakan, North Borneo, Indonesia. It is light brown in color with a very large, round, droopy, and prominent nose.

These monkeys have giant noses for exactly the reason you think

By Laura Baisas

Fluorescent image of a human body louse with Yersinia pestis infection (seen in orange/red) in the Pawlowsky glands.

Body lice may be pretty good spreading bubonic plague

By Laura Baisas

A fossilized dinosaur skin specimen under natural light (upper half) and ultraviolet light (lower half) showing the orange-yellow fluorescence of the fossil skin.

Rare skin fossil sheds new light on dinosaur feathers

By Laura Baisas

rock art depicting a human hunting various animals

How sweat and stamina helped make humans exceptional runners–and hunters

By Laura Baisas

A male African elephant named Doma and a female named Kariba greet one another. Doma touches Kariba´s temporal gland while flapping his ears and Kariba holds her ears spread.

Expressive elephants use gestures and vocal cues to communicate

By Laura Baisas

two adult green-rumped parrots with three nestlings behind them with their mouths open waiting for food

Why these parrots sometimes kill each other’s chicks

By Laura Baisas

three sperm whales swimming near the surface of the ocean

Sperm whales may have their own ‘alphabet’

By Laura Baisas

a seagull stands on a post by a large and sparkling body of blue water

Bigger-brained gull species thrive in urban spaces

By Laura Baisas

Close up of orangutan

Orangutan observed using a plant to treat an open wound

A mechanical analysis of the distinctive canines of California's saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) suggests that the baby tooth that preceded each saber stayed in place for years to stabilize the growing permanent saber tooth, perhaps allowing adolescents to learn how to hunt without breaking them.

How saber-toothed cats’ baby teeth kept their adult fangs from breaking

By Laura Baisas

a scan of a t. rex skull, with is brain colored in

T. rex was probably about as intelligent as a crocodile

By Laura Baisas

a small red squirrel with perked up ears sits on a tree branch

Early trauma can shorten a red squirrel’s lifespan

By Laura Baisas

a bioluminescent coral shaped like a fan with a central hub

Bioluminescence may have evolved 300 million years earlier than scientists previously thought

By Laura Baisas

a circular lamprey mouth dotted with teeth

Lampreys offer clues to the origin of our fight-or-flight instinct

By Laura Baisas

a cyllinder shaped new organelle called a nitroplast under a microscope

For the first time in one billion years, two lifeforms truly merged into one organism

By Laura Baisas

an orange and black butterfly lands on a green leaf with purple flowers

This butterfly hybrid thrived against evolutionary odds

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of southeastern South Australia during the Pleistocene epoch showing various plants and animals that lived there alongside Protemnodon. The almost one-tonne Zygomaturus trilobus in the bottom right. None of the kangaroos shown is a Protemnodon, but there are two short-faced kangaroos in the center-right. One wallaby is also being attacked by a Tasmanian tiger (top left).

Super-muscular 374-pound kangaroos once thumped around Australia and New Guinea

By Laura Baisas

one bonobo yells at another bonobo in a tree

‘Peaceful’ bonobos bite and push each other, actually

By Laura Baisas

two white beluga whales at the surface of the water

Toothed whales traded chewing for echolocation to evolve

By Laura Baisas

a transparent marine worm with two large reddish-orange eyes on the top of its head

Tiny worm with enormous eyes may have a ‘secret language’

By Laura Baisas

an insect called a matador bug on a green leaf. these bugs have red flag lookingsdecorations on their hind legs

These insects give off major red flags

By Laura Baisas

a small ferrit-like mammal from the jurassic period goes after a winged insect

New fossils of tiny, toothy early mammals could be a major missing link

By Laura Baisas

a flock of flamingoes standing

We were very wrong about birds

By Laura Baisas

a prehistoric tooth in a lab

Rare traces of tooth decay and gum disease found in Bronze Age teeth

By Laura Baisas

A songbird called the Japanese tit (Parus minor) perching on a rock in Thailand.

These birds appear to be signaling ‘after you’

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of an extinct species of pink river dolphin in murky water

Paleontologists uncover enormous fossilized river dolphin skull in Peru

By Laura Baisas

Kermit the Frog strumming the banjo, along with a fossil skull of Kermitops (left) and a modern frog skull (right). Kermitops’ discovery is filling in some major evolutionary gaps for amphibians.

New proto-amphibian species named after Kermit the Frog

By Laura Baisas

A screenshot of one unidentified small hawkmoth unsuccessful visit to an orchid, recorded with a camera trap.

‘Spectacular’ new orchid species is pollinated by moths

By Laura Baisas

a group of black and white ring-tailed lemurs sitting in green trees.

Sorry, Darwin: Most male mammals aren’t bigger than females

By Laura Baisas

two termites trapped in an oval shaped bit of amber

These extinct termites have been stuck in a mating position for 38 million years

By Laura Baisas

scans of the anatomy of different animals

Take a look inside 13,000 animals–no scalpel required

By Laura Baisas

A silver gar fish with a long snout.

Meet the new king of the ‘living fossils’

By Laura Baisas

A capuchin monkey with a long tail walking along a tree branch.

Why we don’t have tails

By Laura Baisas

An eyelash pitviper from the New Wold tropics.

Why are there so many snakes?

By Lauren Leffer

Two sea lampreys. They have circular heads with rows of teeth and a suction cup mouth at the center.

You might have more in common with the sea lamprey than you realize

By Laura Baisas

A single humpback whale calf swimming in the waters off of French Polynesia.

We finally know how baleen whales make noise

By Laura Baisas

Giant Antarctic sea spiders can grow up to 20 inches wide.

Giant Antarctic sea spiders’ reproductive mystery solved after 140 years of confusion

By Laura Baisas

A purple and white carnivorous plant called Arisaema thunbergii growing in a forest. It has a tube and cup shaped flower and uses a musky odor to lure fungus gnats.

Bug-munching plant turns insect nurseries into death traps

By Laura Baisas

Fire in a forest

Fire is driving animals’ evolution

By Kylie Mohr / High Country News

A smiling bonobo in a body of water.

Primates have been teasing each other for 13 million years

By Laura Baisas

pleurocystitid soft robot

A sea creature extinct for half a billion years inspired a new soft robot

An illustration of an ancient shark called Glikmanius careforum swimming. It was about 10 to 12 feet long and had a powerful bite.

Three new ancient shark species discovered in Alabama and Kentucky

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of the new pterosaur species Ceoptera evansae. Several of the winged reptiles fly over trees and grass in Jurassic-era Scotland.

New pterosaur species discovered in Scotland

By Laura Baisas

Two long stone tools from the Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician (LRJ) culture uncovered at Ranis. Item 1 is a partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ. Item 2 also contains finely made bifacial leaf points.

Neanderthals and modern humans intermingled in Europe 45,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

A multiple-exposure photograph of insects circling an artificial light at night. The light can mess with a moth’s sense of what direction is up and which way is down.

Why artificial light—and evolution—trap moths

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of the locomotor behavior and paleoenvironment of Lufengpithecus. Six primates that resemble chimpanzees are in a wooded area. Some are walking upright on two legs, while others are on all fours.

Extinct ape’s inner ear holds clues to how humans learned to walk upright

By Laura Baisas

This photograph shows a male dusky antechinus in a naturalistic enclosure located in Cape Otway, Australia.

Sex is more important than sleep for these marsupials

By Laura Baisas

A new evolutionary theory could explain the mystery of shrinking animals

A new evolutionary theory could explain the mystery of shrinking animals

By Lauren Leffer

Green rhodopsin proteins inside the blue cell walls help these yeast grow faster when exposed to light.

This yeast loves light

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of a group of G. blacki within a forest in southern China. Four of these giant apes sit on the grass near a stream, while an orangutan hangs from a tree branch. They are brown with yellow-ish manes around their faces.

These extinct, nearly 10-foot-tall apes could not adapt to shifting seasons

By Laura Baisas

Fruit bats hanging on tree branches in daylight in Bangladesh on November 6, 2023.

Why fruit bats can eat tons of sugar without getting diabetes

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of the pelagic ecosystem and the organisms fossilized in Sirius Passet, revealing how Timorebestia was one of the largest predators in the water column more than 518 million years ago.

Extinct ‘terror beasts’ were some pretty formidable worms

By Laura Baisas

A small brown frog standing on leaves at the water’s edge.

This tiny ‘leaf-nester’ is the smallest known fanged frog

By Laura Baisas

A reindeer stands on snowy ground with hills in the distance.

Reindeer can see UV light—and we may know why

By Laura Baisas

A bearded seal swimming in Arctic waters in Svalbard, Norway. Their name comes from the long and sensitive facial whiskers that they use to find food.

Arctic seals have special noses

By Laura Baisas

Two people hold coffee cups while looking at a a sunrise.

Neanderthals may have been early risers

By Laura Baisas

Glowing blue lights of the tiny ostracods move in sync with one another.

Watch the mucus-filled, synchronized mating dance of bioluminescent ‘sea fireflies’

By Laura Baisas