Evolution

The arrestingly modern hominin at the Neanderthal Museum, near Dusseldorf, is the work of renowned paleo-artists Adrie and Alfons Kennis.

What Do We Really Know About Neanderthals?

Revolutionary discoveries in archaeology show that the species long maligned as knuckle-dragging brutes deserve a new place in the human story

Artistic reconstruction of two individuals of Peregocetus, one standing along the rocky shore of nowadays Peru and the other preying upon fish. The presence of a tail fluke remains hypothetical.

How Did Whales Reach the Americas? A Four-Legged Fossil Offers New Clues

Dubbed Peregocetus pacificus, the newly-described species was adapted to life both in and out of the water

Colors in nature can be produced by both pigments that absorb some light and microscopic structures that change the wavelength of light.

How Do Scientists Know What Colors Prehistoric Animals Were?

Fossil expert Maria McNamara explains how paleontologists are starting to investigate the hues of the past

An illustration of what Avimaia schweitzerae and its nest may have looked like.

First-Ever Fossilized Mother Bird Found With Unlaid Egg

The rare 110-million-year-old bits of shell shine light on the reproduction during the age of dinosaurs

The Cambrian Period was a time of remarkable diversification of life when many of the animal groups that exist today first appear in the fossil record.

Fossil Treasure Trove of Ancient Animals Unearthed in China

The fossils from the Cambrian Period include dozens of new species and provide a window into life more than 500 million years ago

Astrobatrachus kurichiyana, also known as the "starry dwarf frog," has only been found on a single hill range in India's Western Ghats.

Newly Discovered Starry Dwarf Frogs Are Lone Species of an Ancient Lineage

The newly discovered ‘oddball frog’ species dwells in India’s Western Ghats, one of the hottest of the biodiversity hotspots

The lowland streaked tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus) in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, Madagascar.

Defensive Spines on Tenrecs Could Come at a Cost to Brain Size

The little mammals of Madagascar appear to have undergone an evolutionary tradeoff between brain size and defensive armor

Moros was probably about 170 pounds, or roughly the size or a deer.

Meet T. Rex's Teeny Cousin Whose Name Means 'Impending Doom'

A newly discovered tyrannosauroid provides insight into the 70 million year gap in North American tyrannosaur evolutionary records

The coat is functional AND stylish.

Scientists Dressed Horses Up Like Zebras to Determine the Purpose of Stripes

A new study supports the theory that zebras’ distinctive coats repel flies

Lake Malawi formed in a valley where the African tectonic plate is the process of splitting in two.

The Fishy Mystery of Lake Malawi

In the second-largest lake in Africa, fish evolution is taking place at an explosive rate. Why? Scientists are diving into the question

Though Charles Darwin is most famous for his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle and his theory of natural selection, the naturalist was, at heart, a botanist.

How a Love of Flowers Helped Charles Darwin Validate Natural Selection

Though his voyage to the Galapagos and his work with finches dominate the narrative of the famed naturalist, he was, at heart, a botanist

By analyzing fossilized vomit and droppings, scientists have determined that Smok wawelski was one of the first predators to crush the bones of its prey.

Prehistoric Crocodile Cousin Crushed the Bones of Its Prey Long Before T. Rex

Fossilized feces filled with bone reveal the feeding habits of an ancient predator

The species Orobates pabsti represents a group of animals that lived after the first animals to walk on land but before the evolution of modern lizards.

Scientists Used a Robot to Study How Prehistoric Lizards Walked

OroBOT, a robot version of an ancestor to the dinosaurs, is helping fill in some gaps in the evolution of walking

“Little Foot’s” skull and a 3-D rendering of the endocast.

Detailed Scans of Ancient Human Skull Reveal Structure of the Brain and Inner Ear

The skull of "Little Foot," one of the oldest known hominins, continues to teach researchers about human evolution

A sparkling violetear (Colibri coruscans) and a brown violetear (Colibri delphinae) display their neck side-feathers to dissuade each other from using their weaponized bills, which have strongly serrated edges and dagger-like tips.

Some Hummingbirds Evolved Bills That Make Them Better at Fighting—but Worse at Feeding

A new study adds complexity to the notion that hummingbirds are ‘all about drinking efficiently from flowers,’ as one researcher puts it

Kevin Lafferty emerges from the waters off Anacapa Island near Ventura, California, after spearing fish in March 2018. He’s advising a UCSB PhD student on research to determine if reef fish inside protected marine reserves have more or fewer parasites than depleted fish populations outside the reserve. It’s to test a pattern that has emerged in other studies: that parasites thrive with richness and abundance of marine life.

In Praise of Parasites

They worm into snails and infect the brains of fish. They’re also examples of sophisticated evolution and keys to ecosystem balance.

he famous “Catwalk Site," one of the open air displays at the National Museums of Kenya Olorgesailie site museum, which is littered with ~900,000 year old handaxes.

What We Learned About Our Human Origins in 2018

From an upper jaw to red ocher paintings, two Smithsonian scholars note the significant discoveries in human evolution this trip around the sun

Homo neanderthalensis, the earlier relatives of Homo sapiens, also evolved to shed most of their body hair.

Why Did Humans Lose Their Fur?

We are the naked apes of the world, having shed most of our body hair long ago

Baleen is the soft, hair-like structure on the upper mouth of whales, such as the humpback whale in this photo, which allows them to trap prey in their mouth.

Prehistoric Whale Jaw Bone Sheds Light on the Evolution of Baleen

Hidden in a museums’ collections for years, a fossil provides a link between past and present feeding mechanisms

A figure representing the Kayentatherium babies found with an adult specimen. They are the only known fossils of babies from an extinct mammal relative that lived during the Early Jurassic.

Weasel-Like Fossils Reveal Evolutionary Clues of the First Mammals

A protomammal known as <i>Kayentatherium</i> was discovered with 38 babies in 185-million-year-old rock

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