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Evolution

An artistic representation of Megacauda sungei

This Ancient Animal Looked Like a Platypus-Otter Hybrid. It’s Providing Clues About the Origins of Mammalian Suckling and Swallowing

The roughly two- to four-pound predator lived alongside dinosaurs some 165 million years ago. A fossil found in northern China shows the strange creature had a surprisingly modern throat structure

The bare-throated bellbird is among the world’s loudest birds.

These South American Birds Can Match a Jackhammer’s Ear-Splitting Volume, Making Them Some of the World’s Loudest Known Avians

The bare-throated bellbird and the red-legged seriema can produce sounds at amplitudes that exceed 120 decibels, which puts them on par with a trumpeting elephant or a chainsaw

Tyrannosaurus rex’s image has seen major adjustments over the past century.

Five Discoveries That Changed Our Understanding of T. Rex Forever, From Warm Blood to Lips

Paleontologists are still unraveling the secrets of the world’s most famous dinosaur, such as its outward appearance or the way that it hunted. With each new finding, our view of the “tyrant lizard king” has gotten a little clearer—and sometimes has radically shifted

An artistic rendering of the newly discovered species Norellraptor barsboldi.

Remarkable Fossil of a Feathered, Winged Dinosaur Further Hints That Flight Evolved Multiple Times Among the ‘Terrible Lizards’

The fossil belonged to a category of dinosaurs called microraptors, which were bird-like but not ancestors of modern-day avians. A new study found that this group of ancient predators evolved similar anatomical adaptations to birds, but developed them in a different order

The indri is the only known species of lemur that sings.

These Wild Lemurs Sing Just Like Opera Stars, Widening Their Mouths as They Hit the High Notes, Study Suggests

Scientists suspect this musical trait arose independently in humans and indris, which split from a common ancestor some 74 million years ago. Today, the lemurs make loud, haunting calls to communicate with one another in the dense forests of eastern Madagascar

A giant isopod plucked from the ocean near China

This Massive, Deep-Sea Roly Poly Can Go Years Without Food Thanks to a Huge Stomach and a Stolen Gene, Study Suggests

The ancestors of the giant isopod Bathynomus jamesi—a seafloor-dwelling creature that resembles a huge pill bug—acquired the snippet of DNA from bacteria more than 16 million years ago, according to a new study. The gene helps the animal slow its metabolism

The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) is one of 1,500 species of bats around the world.

Where Did Bats Originate? Huge Genetic Study May Have Settled the Longstanding Debate and Rewritten the Creatures’ Evolutionary Tree

The flying mammals likely arose 65 million years ago in Europe, before spreading to Africa and then the rest of the world, according to the new research

Using their new knowledge, the researchers became the first to successfully coax human stem cells into becoming hindbrain motor nerve cells.

Scientists Say the Human Brain Might Be Made of Two Distinct Nervous Systems That Got Squished Together

Two separate types of progenitor cells give rise to the front and back of the organ, according to a new study. The findings can help researchers study human diseases that affect the hindbrain, since its nerve cells have previously been difficult—if not impossible—to make in the lab

In the lab, archaeologists showed how they could rapidly produce thick rope by threading cattail fibers through a replica of a Stone Age tool.

Archaeologists Are Reconstructing the ‘Invisible’ Technologies of the Stone Age, From Rope to Thread and Twine

Largely missing from the archaeological record, fiber innovations played a huge role in the lives of early humans. Researchers are weaving together new insights from the traces they left behind

Miracinonyx trumani that lived in modern-day Wyoming hunted mainly herbivores, such as the Saiga antelope illustrated here, according to the study.

For Decades, Scientists Thought an ‘American Cheetah’ Once Roamed North America. Turns Out the Extinct Cat Wasn’t a Cheetah

Ancient DNA from fossils found in Wyoming and Canada’s Yukon Territory suggests the wild cat more closely resembled modern pumas than modern cheetahs

This year's Ig Nobel Award ceremony took place in Zurich, Switzerland.

Stealing Candy From Children, Splash-Proof Urinals and Buried Panties, Oh My! Here Are the Winners of the 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes

The awards are an unaffiliated spoof of the Nobel Prizes. They highlight research achievements that are surprising and silly-sounding—but also make people think

An artist's interpretation of what Chosha praecursor might have looked like while splitting its time between water and land 324 million years ago in what is now Texas.

This Ancient Insect Had 24 Legs—and Could Help Explain How the Ancestors of Modern-Day Bugs Took Over the Land

A previously undescribed critter that lived 324 million years ago appears to have been a transitional species that lived between land and sea. It could help researchers fill an 80-million-year gap in the fossil record of how crustaceans evolved into insects

Researchers observed bearded capuchins in Brazil eating birds (shown here), lizards, rodents, opossums, snakes and other small vertebrates.

When Fruit Is Scarce, These Monkeys Hunt Animals. The Behavior May Offer Clues About the Origins of Humans’ Meat-Eating Habits

The bearded capuchins of northeastern Brazil typically eat plant-based foods, but they turn to small vertebrates when those sources are limited. Our ancestors may have done the same, eventually allowing predatory behaviors to be more frequently passed on in our lineage

A long-clawed shrew seen in northern Japan

These Tiny Shrews Grow Bigger Snouts and Shrink Their Brains to Survive Harsh Winters, Study Suggests

Scientists have long known that some small mammals reduce their brain size during cold months and regrow them in the spring. Long-clawed shrews from Hokkaido, Japan, seem to follow that pattern—while their noses surprisingly do the opposite

After being closed to the public for more than 80 years, the Nature and Us gallery, photographed here in 1911, will reopen in September.

Closed to the Public Since WWII, a ‘Hidden’ Gallery at London’s Natural History Museum Opens Its Doors Once Again

Animal skeletons, Neolithic tools and pop culture memorabilia are among the dozens of objects to be displayed in the reopened “Nature and Us” exhibition

Researchers made the discovery while studying the California two-spot octopus.

Why Are Some Octopuses So Smart? The Answer Might Lie in a Never-Before-Seen Mutation That Helps Them Accurately Build Proteins

Scientists discovered a strange feature in certain octopuses’ ribosomal RNA, molecules that create a 3D scaffold for cellular protein factories. It was found only in shallow-water creatures that have expanded nervous systems and can do complex behaviors

A tufted gray langur strokes a grizzled giant squirrel in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka.

Do Monkeys Keep Pets? Study Finds Widespread Primate Interactions With Other Animal Species, From Mice to Deer

This social behavior might reveal the evolutionary roots of traits that underlie pet-keeping in humans, scientists say, from caregiving to tolerance and curiosity. But it’s not the same as a person keeping a cat or a dog

According to a niche perspective called “cosmological evolution,” universes may reproduce by spawning black holes in which new universes may form. The concept is far from proven, but researchers note its potential.

Earth’s Organisms Developed Via Evolution. Some Theorists Wonder: What if the Entire Cosmos Did, Too?

The idea that universes evolve like organisms sat on the fringes of theoretical physics for decades. Then, a Substack post and a 2022 find by the James Webb Space Telescope boosted the concept

An illustration of Chiniquodon theotonicus, including a pregnant female and a nursing female

When Did Animals Start Giving Birth to Live Young? This 236-Million-Year-Old Fossil Might Rewrite Mammals’ Evolutionary History

A bone feature found in a mammal ancestor hints that the creature was relatively large as a newborn, more in line with the size of a creature birthed live than hatched from an egg. Still, it provides only indirect evidence

The brain is a glutton for glucose, broken down from carbohydrates, which often come from starchy or naturally sweet foods. 

Meat Wasn’t the Only Food That Drove Early Humans to Evolve Bigger Brains. Sugar May Have Fueled the Organ’s Enlargement, Too

Scientists examined four million years of hominin diets. They found that natural sugars may have supplied energy—in the form of glucose—to growing brains before cooking made starchy foods easier to digest

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