Evolution

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

Latest in Evolution

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.