Evolution

Draughtsboard sharks apparently snooze with their eyes open or closed depending on the amount of surrounding light.

Sharks Apparently Do Sleep, Even With Their Eyes Wide Open

Scientists observed sleep in draughtsboard sharks by analyzing the animals' metabolism and posture

An illustration of S. bideni, which is the oldest known cephalopod to have suckers along all of its arms.

Ancient Ten-Armed Octopus Relative Named for Joe Biden

The discovery of 'Syllipsimopodi bideni' pushes back the fossil record of the vampyropods by over 82 million years

The Venus flytrap Dionaea muscipula is the most sophisticated of the carnivorous plants. Its traps snap shut in a fraction of a second, imprisoning prey in a cage of teeth that line the edges of the trap.

How Carnivorous Plants Evolved

Botanists are beginning to trace the origins of their gruesome appetites

One reader wonders if European modernists thought of the American painter Georgia O’Keeffe as a remarkable artist.  

Was Georgia O'Keeffe's Genius Appreciated Outside of America? And More Questions From Our Readers

You've got questions. We've got experts.

Lichens produce oxygen, trap moisture, and serve as food and shelter to other organisms.

Lichens Are in an Evolutionary Race Against Climate Change

The symbiotic organisms could need more than a million years to adapt to just 1 degree Celsius of warming, a new study suggests

Scientists identified an odor receptor that detects a synthetic musk used in fragrances, and another that detects underarm odor.

Humans' Sense of Smell May Be Worse Than Our Primate Ancestors'

The recent study also identified two new scent receptors for musk and body odor

Big brown bats Eptesicus fuscus (pictured) are a Yangochiroptera species that uses complex sounds to echolocate. 

A Tiny, Partially Missing Bone Structure in Bat Ears May Have Cleared the Way for Echolocation to Evolve

Nearly 90 percent of the nighttime hunters use sound to find prey

Researchers have located a genetic mutation associated with smaller dogs.

Mutation That Gave Us Tiny Dogs Found in Ancient Wolves

The genetic factor that plays a large role in determining canine body size was around thousands of years prior to domestication

Richard Leakey's most notable find came in 1984 when he uncovered a near-complete Homo erectus skeleton dated about 1.5 million years ago. The skeleton dubbed Turkana Boy is 40 percent complete and is the most near-complete fossil skeleton of a human ancestor ever found.

Famed Paleoanthropologist and Wildlife Conservationist Richard Leakey Dies at 77

His team's discovery of early human skulls and skeletons cemented Africa as the cradle of humanity

Though ichthyosaurs and whales never existed at the same time, they both evolved from species that walked on Earth and transitioned to the sea. 

Earth's Oldest Ocean Giant Was a Reptile With an Eight-Foot Skull

The newly discovered specimen sheds light on how the sea creatures, known as ichthyosaurs, evolved their gargantuan size so quickly

A restoration of the extinct whale Phiomicetus, named by paleontologists earlier this year, preying upon a sawfish.

Whales Once Walked Along the Coasts of North America

Increasing fossil finds are helping researchers understand how such early whales made their way to the continent

Harvard University professor E.O. Wilson in his office in Cambridge, MA. He is considered to be the world's leading authority on the study of ants.

Remembering E.O. Wilson's Wish for a More Sustainable Existence

From a lifelong passion for ants, E.O. Wilson guided humanity to think of conservation

From amazing firsts on Mars to the impacts of climate change on Earth, these science stories stood out as the most important of 2021

The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2021

Thrilling discoveries, hurdles in the fight against Covid and advancements in space exploration defined the past year

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The Ten Best Science Books of 2021

From captivating memoirs by researchers to illuminating narratives by veteran science journalists, these works affected us the most this year

The expansion of the western honeybee gave rise to seven other lineages and 28 subspecies.

Genetic Analysis Reveals the Origins of the World's Most Common Honeybee Species

The western honeybee hailed from western Asia seven million years ago, ending the contentious debate over where these buzzy critters originated

The footprints from site A (left) look similar to those excavated from site G (right), but they are much wider. 

A Set of Ancient Footprints May Have Belonged to an Unknown Human Ancestor

The prints were originally attributed to bears, but further analysis reveals that they don't match bears—or any known human ancestors either

Ankylosaurs were herbivores that lived during the Late Cretaceous period. 

New Species of Ankylosaur Unearthed in Chile Had a Flat, Weapon-Like Tail

About 80 percent of the skeleton was found intact and the specimen may reveal an early evolutionary split in the species

For a tiny, soft-bodied worm, seeking shelter by way of hermiting behavior likely protected it from predators.

Penis Worms May Have Been the First Real Hermits

Hermit crabs may have evolved hermiting behavior 180 million years ago, but penis worms beat them by more than 300 million years

Poaching was amplified during Mozambique’s civil war between 1977 to 1992 to finance the war efforts. Elephant population numbers dropped from 2,500 individuals to around 200 in the early 2000s.  

Female Elephants Are Evolving Without Tusks in Mozambique

The genetic mutation causing tusklessness in females seems to be lethal in males

Using micro-CT scans, the team visualized the crab's body in 3-D and even imaged its mouthparts lined with fine hairs. It is unknown if the five-millimeter-long crab is a full-grown adult, a juvenile or a baby.

This Tiny Crustacean Trapped in Amber Tells a Different Story About Crab Evolution

The Cretaceous-era fossil suggests that crabs left the sea some 50 million years earlier than scientists previously thought

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