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Going the distance: Evolution mavens in the Quantock Hills of England walked for some 3.5 billion years. Stuart Conway

Special Report

Evotourism ®

Where you can travel to see evolution in action

At American Fossil Quarry, on privately owned land near Kemmerer, Wyoming, hammer- and chisel-wielding visitors pay $69 to $89 to spend up to four hours hunting for fossils. Finders, keepers.

The 50-Million-Year-Old Treasures of Fossil Lake

In a forbidding Wyoming desert, scientists and fortune hunters search for the surprisingly intact remains of horses and other creatures that lived long ago

Robert Leverett walks through the old-growth forests in Mohawk Trail State Forest.

Old, Primeval Forests May Be a Powerful Tool to Fight Climate Change

Ecologists thought these trees had long been torn down in New England. Then Bob Leverett proved them wrong

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Seven New Things We Learned About Human Evolution in 2021

Paleoanthropologists Briana Pobiner and Ryan McRae reveal some of the year’s best findings in human origins studies

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Last October, archaeologists discovered the mud dock where the HMS Beagle was dismantled by using specialized drone photography

The Final Home of Charles Darwin’s HMS Beagle Gets Protected Status

The naturalist famously conducted the research that led to the "Origin of Species" on board the ship

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

The 'Ubeidiya site today is an expanse of grasses. Concealed from this view are slabs of fossilized pebbly clay, a source of ancient finds that have helped scholars learn about the journeys of Homo erectus.

What Drove Homo Erectus Out of Africa?

Excavations at a site in northern Israel are at the heart of a debate about the species' migrations

“You could say that saving species is in my blood,” says Chris Darwin, a conservationist who lives in the mountains explored by his great-great-grandfather.

How Australia Put Evolution on Darwin’s Mind

The famous naturalist’s revolutionary theory first took shape not in the Galápagos but in the primeval Blue Mountains

Beware of this meat-eating Albertosaurus on the Royal Tyrrell Museum plaza.

Want to Excite Your Inner Dinosaur Fan? Pack Your Bags for Alberta

Canada’s badlands are the place to see fantastic dinosaur fossils (and kitsch)—and eye-opening new evidence about the eve of their fall

Guadalupe Peak and El Capitan: a landscape “lonely as a dream,” wrote Edward Abbey.

When Texas Was at the Bottom of the Sea

A hike to the “top of Texas,” the world’s most famous fossil reef, leads to a new sense of the sublime

Evotourism: The Americas

Heavily forested slopes near Spirit Lake were devastated by the eruption as shown in this photo in 1982.

Mount St. Helens, Washington

Over thirty years after the volcanic eruption, plant and animal life has returned to the disaster site, a veritable living laboratory

The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles is the only active urban paleontological excavation site in the United States.

La Brea Tar Pits, California

Just a short drive from the mansions of Beverly Hills lies a site where paleontologists have found over three million fossils

The Burgess Shale, a crumbling slope in Canada's Rocky Mountains, has provided our first good look at the rich variety of organisms that once flourished in the region.

Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada

Located in the Canadian Rockies, the fossil-rich dig site provides clues to scientists investigating how animal life began

The Green River carves the landscape at Mitten Park fault, exposing rock layers formed more than a billion years ago – long before the dinosaurs.

Welcome to America’s Dinosaur Playground

Countless bones and a billion years of geological action make Dinosaur National Monument the go-to park for fossil finds

Three-toed horses such as <em>Cormohipparion occidentale</em> were adapted to forests prior to 12 million years ago. As the climate dried, one-toed horses became prevalent.

Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska

Prehistoric rhinoceroses and horses died of volcanic ash inhalation 12 million years ago – their fossils are studied now as an example of natural selection

Wolves hunting moose on Isle Royale are a dramatic example of what scientists call co-evolution: two species, such as a predator and its prey, adapting to each other’s adaptations.

Isle Royale, Michigan

Moose and wolves face off in the world’s longest-running study of predators and prey

Far from the mainland and one another, the Galapágos Islands host animals with distinctive traits, such as the notched shell of Pinzón Island’s saddleback giant tortoise.

Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

The exotic locale, home to tortoises, cacti, iguanas and finches, was a source of inspiration for Darwin's theory of evolution

Five Great Places to See Evidence of First Americans

Encounter the fossils and other remnants of the lives left behind by the continent’s original settlers

Evotourism: Europe

Going the distance: Evolution mavens in the Quantock Hills of England walked for some 3.5 billion years.

Take a Hike on Britain’s Ancestor’s Trail and Travel Back 10,000 Years

On a wild hike inspired by famed evolutionist Richard Dawkins, every step promises a strange encounter with the origins of species

After purchasing Down House, he and his wife continually expanded the building and their gardens.

The House Where Darwin Lived

Home to the naturalist for 40 years, the estate near London was always evolving

The Jurassic Coast encompasses 185 million years of history.

Jurassic Coast, England

The best opportunity to play paleontologist is on the southern coast of England, a site rich with marine reptile fossils

A time capsule of life in the Eocene: Ailuravus, a three-foot-long, squirrel-like rodent

The Evolutionary Secrets Within the Messel Pit

An amazing abundance of fossils in a bygone lake in Germany hints at the debt humans owe to animals that died out 48 million years ago

Although he didn’t realize it at the time, friar Gregor Mendel, statue in the Abbey of St. Thomas, had discovered a crucial genetic mechanism underlying natural selection.

Mendel's Garden, Czech Republic

At an abbey in the Czech town of Brno, a friar studied peas and laid the groundwork for modern genetics

Evotourism: Africa, Asia, Australia

South Africa’s limestone caves, such as Sterkfontein often hold the fossilized skeletons of hominids who fell into holes or were dragged underground by predators.

The Cradle of Humankind, South Africa

The world's greatest source of hominid fossils is among dozens of caves just hours from Johannesburg

Whales evolved from mammals that adapted to hunt in oceans. Skeletons of Basilosaurus, a whale ancestor, reveal the leviathan still retained tiny hind legs.

Wadi Hitan, Egypt

In Egypt's Western Desert, evidence abounds that before they were the kings of the ocean, whales roamed the earth on four legs

Foraminifera provide scientists with an invaluable fossil record. Their exquisite outer shells, normally too small for the naked eye, inspired sculptures in Zhongshan, China.

Foraminifera Sculpture Park, China

Some of the world's oldest organisms left behind fossilized shells that, when translated to a large sculpture, bring an artistic edge to evolution

Previously off the beaten path, Komodo island is now one of Indonesia’s most popular travel destinations.

The Komodo Dragon is an All-Purpose Killing Machine

A visit to one of Indonesia’s most popular tourist destinations could be your last

Koalas, kangaroos and wallabies are abundant on the island and not particularly fearful, so it’s possible to have close encounters with these distant mammalian kin.

Kangaroo Island, Australia

Mammals come in three types and the best place to see them all in one place is this small island off the southern coast of Australia