Evolution (Page 6)

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

Latest in Evolution

A dinosaur called poposaurus walks near some trees. The dinosaur comes from a group of extinct relatives of the crocodile known as Poposauroidea.

Tracing the crocodiles’ curious evolutionary family tree

By Laura Baisas

A mosquito encased in yellow-hued amber.

Millions of years ago, male mosquitoes may have been blood suckers too

By Laura Baisas

Two wild bonobos sit in a tree. Researchers examined pro-social behaviors of the smaller species of great ape in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Wild bonobos show surprising signs of cooperation between groups

By Laura Baisas

Illustration in green, yellow, orange, and purple of big sauropod dinosaurs lifting weights in front of a prehistoric landscape

The mystery of why some dinosaurs got so enormous

A side view of a great white shark. Regional endothermy in fish has been seen in apex predators like the great white sharks or giant tuna.

Megalodon’s warm-blooded relatives are still circling the oceans today

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Ekgmowechashala, the last primate to inhabit North America before humans. The animal has a white furry face, with a pink nose, and large dark eyes like a lemur. It is sitting in a leafy tree.

North America was once home to some unusual wild monkeys

By Laura Baisas

Photograph of the skeletal mount of an Allosaurus specimen (AMNH 5753), from William Diller Matthew's 1915 book “Dinosaurs.”

When a Jurassic giant died, predatory dinos probably feasted on the carcass

By Laura Baisas

An orange starfish, or sea star, on a black backgorund. The unusual five-axis symmetry of sea stars has long confounded our understanding of animal evolution.

The sea star’s whole body is a head

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of an early lamprey's teeth and sucker. The Jurassic lampreys Yanliaomyzon had a feeding apparatus that surprisingly resembles that of the pouched lampreys. It foreshadows the ancestral flesh-eating habit of present day. lampreys.

Giant prehistoric lamprey likely sucked blood—and ate flesh

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of two Jormungandr walhallaensis mosasaurs fighting. The extinct creatrue is a long sea serpent with flippers, a shark-like tail, and narrow jaws. One is seen biting the other in the next, while pterosaurs fly above it.

Newfound mosasaur was like a giant Komodo dragon with flippers

By Laura Baisas

Ma Rainey, a post-reproductive female of the Ngogo community of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and her adult son Wes. The two are sitting among trees in a forest.

Wild chimpanzees show signs of potential menopause—a rarity in the animal kingdom

By Laura Baisas

A life-sized reconstruction of the head and jaws of the oldest megapredatory pliosaur called Lorrainosaurus. The reptile is long and torpedo shaped, with closed jaws and sharp exposed teeth.

This Jurassic-era ‘sea murderer’ was among the first of its kind

By Laura Baisas

A group of worker bees surround the queen bee on a honeycomb. All worker honeybees are female and they can go to extreme lengths to serve their queen even shedding their own ovaries.

Female honeybees may pass down ‘altruistic’ genes

By Laura Baisas

Three stage of digital reconstruction. From left, the Pierolapithecus cranium shortly after discovery, after initial preparation, and after virtual reconstruction.

12-million-year-old ape skull bares its fangs in virtual reconstruction

By Laura Baisas

AI-designed multi-legged robots on table

AI design for a ‘walking’ robot is a squishy purple glob

The cave lion remains from Siegsdorf, Germany are displayed alongside a reproduction of a wooden spear similar to those used by Neanderthals.

Neanderthals may have hunted mighty cave lions

By Laura Baisas

Human hand bones during an archaeological dig.

Sensitive to pain? It could be your Neanderthal gene variants.

By Laura Baisas

A newly discovered sauropod dinosaur left behind some epic footprints

A newly discovered sauropod dinosaur left behind some epic footprints

By Laura Baisas

White Sands NPS staff excavating fossilized human footprints from lakebed

Do the ancient human footprints at White Sands date back to the last ice age?

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Two chimpanzees share a meal. A new study found that same-sex sexual behavior helps establish and maintain positive social relationships in animals including chimpanzees, bighorn sheep, lions, and wolves.

Mammals may use same-sex sexual behavior for conflict resolution, bonding, and more

By Laura Baisas

A green monk parakeet standing in dirt. Parrots could have a unique tone of voice just like humans do.

No two parakeets sound exactly the same

By Laura Baisas

T. rex model, T. rex skull, and Triceratops skull at dinosaur display in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna

4 reasons dinosaurs never really ruled the Earth

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

By Laura Baisas

A hyenea shows its jaws. Giant hyenas went extinct about 500,000 years ago, but were roughly 240 pounds and skilled scavengers like their modern counterparts.

How many ancient humans does it take to fight off a giant hyena?

By Laura Baisas

A tarantula with a mostly black body, but bright blue legs and pincers. Chilobrachys natanicharum is the first tarantula species found in Thailand’s mangrove trees. CREDIT: Yuranan Nanthaisong/ZooKeys.

Meet the first electric blue tarantula known to science

By Laura Baisas

Multiple reddish pink parasitic plants called balanophora growing in a forest. Balanophora shed one third of its genes as it evolved into a very streamlined parasitic plant.

These parasitic plants force their victims to make them dinner

By Laura Baisas

A dissected ant and where you can see the encapsulated parasites (white oval structures) spilling out of the hind body.

This parasite deploys mucus slime balls to make ‘zombie ants’

By Laura Baisas

Microraptor wearing helmet is shot out of a circus cannon to represent how dinosaurs evolved to fly. Illustration in red, yellow, blue, and green.

We still don’t know how animals evolved to fly

Virgin Galactic spacecraft in suborbital flight above Earth

Virgin Galactic’s latest cargo? Ancient human bones

two jackdaws (Corvus monedula) on a branch

These crow relatives put food over friendship

By Sara Kiley Watson

An artist’s illustration of the 25 million year old Ditjimanka Lumakoala blackae, featuring (left to right) the wallaby-sized herbivore Muramura williamsi, an extinct koala relative named Madakoala devis,i and the calf-size lizard called Ilaria lawsone.

Scientists discover a cat-sized ancient koala in Australia

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of Fujianvenator prodigiosus, an avialan theropod who lived during the Late Jurassic period and had a lower leg that was twice as long as its thigh.

Leggy dinosaur species could be the latest feathery clue to bird evolution

By Laura Baisas

Two monkeys sitting in a forest. Dartmouth researchers report that apes and early humans evolved more flexible shoulders and elbows than monkeys to safely get out of trees. For early humans, these versatile appendages would have been essential for gathering food and deploying tools for hunting and defense.

Our tree-climbing ancestors evolved our abilities to throw far and reach high

By Laura Baisas

A couple standing on the beach in warm sunlight.

Couples often share more common traits than we might think

By Laura Baisas

An artistic reconstruction of Kylinxia, a relative of present day insects and crustaceans. It has two extended forelimbs, a round and segmented body, and three eyes on its head.

A three-eyed organism roamed the seas half a billion years ago

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of a sabertooth tiger in a grassland. Sabertooth tigers went extinct between about 8,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Mighty sabertooth tigers may have purred like kittens

By Laura Baisas

A coral reef just off of an island in Palau. Coral reefs in Palau provide critical habitats for a number of species and provide a storm barrier.

Some Pacific coral reefs can keep pace with a warming ocean

By Laura Baisas

Artist's interpretation of Venetoraptor gassenae in a Triassic landscape.

This flightless pterosaur ancestor had enviable claws and a raptor-like beak

By Laura Baisas

Members of the Dutch Tall Ship Oosterschelde wave goodbye from the quay in Rotterdam on August 4, 2023. The Rotterdam ship departs for a two-year world tour that scientist Charles Darwin made two centuries ago.

Mission to recreate Darwin’s scientific Beagle voyage sets sail

By Laura Baisas

Artist impression of the stem pinniped Potamotherium valletoni swimming in his natural, freshwater environment. Grasses and plants grow below the animal, that has whiskers, legs, and flippers.

Hungry seals may have begun following their whiskers 23 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

Our galaxy, the Milky Way.

How might life migrate through the universe?

By Roberto Battiston/MIT Press Reader

Archaeologists dig in the dirt with a brush and scraper.

Mysterious skull points to a possible new branch on human family tree

By Laura Baisas

A man is looking in a glass case of coprolites collected in Nong Yakong village, Chaiyaphum Province, Thailand.

Rare parasites found in 200 million-year-old reptile poop

By Laura Baisas

taxidermied two-headed goat kid

Life after death never looked so beautiful

By Ted Cavanaugh, Sara Kiley Watson

Reconstruction of Hupehsuchus about to engulf a shoal of shrimp. The ancient lizard widely opens its skinny snout and large mouth to swallow a large ball of shrimp.

The planet’s first filter feeder could be this extinct marine reptile

By Laura Baisas

A Heliconius butterfly with black, orange, and white on its wings.

Butterflies can remember specific flower foraging routes

By Laura Baisas

An artist's rendition of the Perucetus colossus.

This giant sea cow-like whale may have been the heaviest creature to ever live on Earth

By Sara Kiley Watson

Artistic reconstruction of a group of Burgessomedusa phasmiformis swimming in the Cambrian sea.

Jellyfish may have been roaming the seas for at least 500 million years

By Laura Baisas

A bee on a peach rose. Understanding how flowering plants and bees evolved together can help inform conservation efforts for pollinators and how to keep their populations healthy.

The world’s earliest bees may have called Gondwana home

By Laura Baisas

A scanning electron picture of a female Panagrolaimus kolymaensis nematode.

Recently awoken 46,000-year-old nematodes already have 100 generations of babies

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of Solnhofia parsonsi’s environment in an Upper Jurassic lagoon 150 million years ago in what is now Lower Bavaria. The turtle swims in a shallow body of water, with fish swimming near it and pterosaurs flying above.

150 million-year-old turtle ‘pancake’ found in Germany

By Laura Baisas

Giganotosaurus vs. T. rex in a screenshot from Jurassic World Dominion

Giganotosaurus vs. T. rex: Who would win in a battle of the big dinosaurs?

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

parasitic horsehair worm

‘Brainwashing’ parasites inherit a strange genetic gap

By Maddi Langweil

An artistic reconstruction showing how this 300,000 year-old stick would have been thrown on a hunt. Two men stand in a shallow body of water, with one aiming the stick towards three birds.

A javelin-like stick shows early humans may have been keen woodworkers

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of Alligator munensis, which is skimming the water with its eye out and surrounded by lush green trees. The large tooth sockets towards the back of its mouth suggest this extinct gator could crush shells and may have snacked on hard-shelled prey like snails.

Extinct snub-nosed gator had big teeth for crushing snails

By Laura Baisas

A banded sea snake swimming freely

Some sea snakes may not be colorblind after all

By Laura Baisas

Oldest tunicate on record from the Cambrian explosion, illustrated on the ocean floor

A 500-million-year-old sea squirt is the evolutionary clue we need to understand our humble beginnings

By Maddi Langweil

A honey bee pollinates a yellow flower against a bright blue sky.

Bee brains could teach robots to make split-second decisions

By Laura Baisas

Two male male rhesus macaques sit on the ground, one with his head down towards the other

Same-sex mounting in male macaques can help them reproduce more successfully

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Anomalocaris, which lived 541 million to 530 million years ago during the Cambrian Period. The animal has two bulging eyes on the top of its head and spiny front appendages,

Ancient ‘weird shrimp from Canada’ used bizarre appendages to scarf up soft prey

By Laura Baisas

The silhouette of a female hunter with a bow and arrow at sunrise.

Women have been skillful, purposeful hunters in most foraging societies

By Laura Baisas

A spider monkey stands on a tree branch with a baby monkey on her back.

The ancestor of all placental mammals survived the dino-killing asteroid

By Laura Baisas

An orangutan sits in the forest and looks forward with its hands under its chin.

Orangutans can make two sounds at the same time

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of a megalogon, which went extinct 3.6 million years ago and are believed to have grown to lengths of 50 feet.

Megalodons were likely warm-blooded, despite being stone-cold killers

By Laura Baisas