Evolution
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Scientists Dressed Horses Up Like Zebras to Determine the Purpose of Stripes
A new study supports the theory that zebras’ distinctive coats repel flies
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
Why Did Humans Lose Their Fur?
We are the naked apes of the world, having shed most of our body hair long ago
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
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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