Evolution (Page 8)

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

Latest in Evolution

A mother and baby golden snub nosed monkey. These primates live in mountainous regions of southwestern China. Longer periods of maternal care may have helped them form more complex societies.

Chilly climates may have forged stronger social bonds in some primates

By Laura Baisas

Reassembled partial skeleton Ambulator keanei with silhouette demonstrating advanced adaptations for quadrupedal, graviportal walking.

This 500-pound Australian marsupial had feet made for walkin’

By Laura Baisas

A walker in sneakers, with the bottom of the shoe visible.

Evolution of human foot arches put the necessary pep in our upright steps

By Laura Baisas

A sloth hangs in a tree in Costa Rica. The mammals have the slowest digestive system of any animal on Earth. It can take sloths two weeks to digest an entire meal, and they sleep about 20 hours a day to conserve energy.

Sloth schedules are surprisingly flexible

By Laura Baisas

A spiny mouse standing on a rock. Spiny mice can regenerate skin, muscle, nerves, spinal cord, and possibly cardiac tissue.

African spiny mouse joins a small but mighty group of bony plated mammals

By Laura Baisas

Siler collingwoodi is a colorful, ant-mimicking spider found in China and Japan.

This spider pretends to be an ant, but not well enough to avoid being eaten

By Laura Baisas

A blue butterfly on a pink flowering plant.

A ‘butterfly tree of life’ reveals the origins of these beautiful insects

By Laura Baisas

Extinct ‘thunder beasts’ went from mini to massive in the blink of an evolutionary eye

Extinct ‘thunder beasts’ went from mini to massive in the blink of an evolutionary eye

By Laura Baisas

A bat sea star on a dark background.

The blueprints for early organs may be hiding in sea stars

By Laura Baisas

The cast of a Neanderthal skull on display at the Chemnitz State Museum of Archaeology in Germany on January 24, 2023.

How Neanderthal genetic material could influence nose shapes to this day

By Laura Baisas

Woolly mammoth tusks in dawn light on Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia, where the female mammoth tusk used in the testosterone study had been found several years earlier.

Male woolly mammoths had hormone-fueled bouts of aggression

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of the organisms that lived in the Castle Bank community.

Fossil trove in Wales is a 462-million-year-old world of wee sea creatures

By Laura Baisas

Red cherry shaped as butt on orange and purple ombre background

A scientific exploration of big juicy butts

By Rachel Feltman

The oldest chili pepper specimen may be from present-day Colorado

The oldest chili pepper specimen may be from present-day Colorado

By Sara Kiley Watson

How deadly amphibians survive their own poisons

How deadly amphibians survive their own poisons

By Geoffrey Giller/Knowable Magazine

An adult male and adult female California sea lion sit on a beach surrounded by pups.

Male California sea lions have gotten bigger and better at fighting

By Laura Baisas

Evolution of human brain size shown with brass sculptures at a kids science museum in China

We probably have big brains because we got lucky

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Two mudskippers fighting in the mud, with eyes and pectoral fins exposed.

Mudskippers blink—and that’s a huge evolutionary clue

By Laura Baisas

A male chimpanzee named Frodo frowns.

Nice chimps finish last—so why aren’t all of them mean?

By Laura Baisas

A carnivorous Sarracenia plant growing in the wild.

Carnivorous pitcher plants may use tempting aromas to lure prey to their death

By Laura Baisas

Cannabis plant under purple weed grow light

On 420, learn more about weed with these carefully cultivated science stories

By Jamie Helmick

An orb weaver spider spins a web in a forest.

Spider glue might evolve faster than the spiders themselves

By Laura Baisas

The mysterious ‘Tully monster’ didn’t have a spine after all

The mysterious ‘Tully monster’ didn’t have a spine after all

By Jamie Helmick

An artistic rendering of the open woodland habitat reconstruction at Moroto II with Morotopithecus bishopi vertically climbing with infant on back and Mount Moroto, an active, in background.

A plant-based diet full of leaves may have helped apes stand upright

By Laura Baisas

Skeleton of paratype of Icaronycteris gunnelli, the oldest bat skeletons ever found.

Oldest bat skeleton ever found by paleontologists finally has a name

By Laura Baisas

Luna moth resting on a tree.

The alluring tail of the Luna moth is surprisingly useless for finding a mate

By Jamie Helmick

Woolly mammoths evolved tiny ears over 700,000 years in Siberia

Woolly mammoths evolved tiny ears over 700,000 years in Siberia

By Laura Baisas

A purple hand reaching to touch a green tongue of an orange person with their mouth open frowning because they're tasting something digsuting

Why food tastes wildly different to different people

By Julia Craven

An adult elephant walks with two juvenile elephants.

Scientists may have figured out why elephants exhibit complex emotions

By Laura Baisas

An ostrich inspects eggs in a nest.

Troodons laid eggs in communal nests just like modern ostriches

By Laura Baisas

A juvenile Edmontosaurus disappears into the enormous, lipped mouth of Tyrannosaurus.

Scaly lips may have hidden the T-rex’s fearsome teeth

By Laura Baisas

A baby song thrush bird looks up from the forest floor.

Postmortem poop can teach us a lot about the avian gut microbiome

By Laura Baisas

The parking lot outside a Buc-ee’s store in Temple, Texas.

A 15-million-year-old beaver was just named after an iconic convenience store

By Laura Baisas

Desert daisy tricks male flies with sexy evolutionary deception

Desert daisy tricks male flies with sexy evolutionary deception

By Laura Baisas

A white-tailed jackrabbit in it's winter white fur.

Jackrabbit’s color-changing fur may prepare them for climate change

By Laura Baisas

Ankylosaur in blue floatie and life vest riding the ocean waves. Prehistoric trees and a full moon are in the background. Illustrated.

Why dinosaurs were terrible swimmers

It’s still a mystery how snails ended up scattered around the globe

It’s still a mystery how snails ended up scattered around the globe

By Thom van Dooren/MIT Press Reader

An illustration of Thylacosmilus atrox, an extinct marsupial with giant canine teeth,

With bulging eyes and a killer smile, this sabertooth was an absolute nightmare

By Laura Baisas

A Wedge-tailed Eagle, a large vulture native to Australia.

An extinct 10-foot-long eagle could pick up kangaroos with its terrifying talons

By Laura Baisas

Red and speckled blue and black poison dart frog looking up from a light green leaf

Poisonous animals probably took their sweet time developing unappetizing bright colors

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

This dinosaur’s record-breaking neck defies the laws of nature

This dinosaur’s record-breaking neck defies the laws of nature

By Sara Kiley Watson

Gorillas like to scramble their brains by spinning around really fast

Gorillas like to scramble their brains by spinning around really fast

By Sara Kiley Watson

Fungus gnat on a white flower petal

Flies evolved before dinosaurs—and survived an apocalyptic world after the Permian extinction

By Sara Kiley Watson

A warm of bees on a honeycomb.

Older bees teach younger bees the ‘waggle dance’

By Laura Baisas

This fossilized ‘ancient animal’ might be a bunch of old seaweed

This fossilized ‘ancient animal’ might be a bunch of old seaweed

By Sara Kiley Watson

A white-bellied woodstar hummingbird flying. Their colorful throat feathers are believed to help them find a mate.

This hybrid hummingbird’s colorful feathers are a genetic puzzle

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Hyneria udlezinye, a large, predatory fish, with smaller fish in the Waterloo Farm ecosystem in South Africa about 360 million years ago.

A gator-faced fish shaped like a torpedo stalked rivers 360 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

A woma pythron, a large, nocturnal species of snake on the ground by a piece of wood.

Snakes can actually hear really well

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of two theropod species discovered by scientists at the University of Southampton in 2021, Ceratosuchops inferodios and Riparovenator milnerae.

What was going on inside of this spinosaur’s brain?

By Laura Baisas

Two orca whales swim in the ocean with mountains in the distance.

Raising male offspring comes at a high price for orca mothers

By Laura Baisas

An uncooked brown crab sitting among among seaweed and water.

Neanderthals caught and cooked crabs 90,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

A wolf-like puppy surrounded by other puppies tries howling.

Do domesticated dogs howl back at wolves?

By Laura Baisas

A fossilized fish brain alongside of a penny for size comparison.

Scientists find 319-million-year-old fossilized fish brain

By Laura Baisas

Artist's reconstruction of Ignacius dawsonae surviving six months of winter darkness in the extinct warm temperate ecosystem of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada.

These primate ancestors were totally chill with a colder climate

By Laura Baisas

Two long, dark, Koh Tao worm salamanders on a swampy soil

One wormy Triassic fossil could fill a hole in the evolutionary story of amphibians

By Laura Baisas

A chimpanzee holding out its hand.

Adolescent chimpanzees might be less impulsive than human teens

By Laura Baisas

Adult zebra shark swims in a tank at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago

A virgin birth in Shedd Aquarium’s shark tank is baffling biologists

By Laura Baisas

Five fossil specimens including extinct trilobites.

Trilobites may have jousted with head ‘tridents’ to win mates

By Laura Baisas

A small lizard called the Puerto Rican crested anole sits on a human-made fence.

When these reptiles became city lizards, it changed their genes

By Laura Baisas

‘Snowball Earth’ was crushing and cold. What animals could survive it?

‘Snowball Earth’ was crushing and cold. What animals could survive it?

By Chris Baraniuk / Hakai Magazine

Zebrafish swimming in an aquarium.

A primitive part of the zebrafish brain helps them find their way home

By Laura Baisas

A young orangutan in a tree.

Why do humans talk? Tree-dwelling orangutans might hold the answer.

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of adult and young of the ichthyosaur species (Shonisaurus popularis) chasing ammonoid prey 230 million years ago, in what is now Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada.

Millions of years ago, marine reptiles may have used Nevada as a birthing ground

By Laura Baisas

Giant gray cat snuggling a child with black hair in an orange sweater to show their cat-human bond. Illustration.

Your cat is probably more attached to you than you think

By Brandon Keim