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Evolution

Contrary to popular beliefs, Neanderthals lived in complex societies and hunted prey cooperatively.

New Research

Neanderthals Hunted in Groups, One More Strike Against the Dumb Brute Myth

The skeletons of deer killed 120,000 years ago offer more evidence of cooperative behavior and risk-taking among our hominin relatives

From glow-in-the-dark squid to the terrifying stoplight loosejaw, creatures of the deep have evolved their own living light time and time again.

Why Bioluminescence Evolved to Be Red Light, and Blue

The laws of nature constrict living light to a few hues, which also happen to be quite patriotic

Researchers studied delicate hyoid bones, which support and ground the tongue, in fossils like these from Northeast China.

Actually, T. Rex Probably Couldn’t Stick Out Its Tongue

The tongues of bird-like dinosaurs and pterosaurs, however, may have been more mobile

Elephants communicate in low rumbles, each listening for the resulting vibrations in the ground with their feet.

New Research

Some Animals Take Turns While Talking, Just Like Humans. Why?

Understanding their courteous exchanges—from frog croaks to elephant rumbles—could shed light on the origins of human conversation

You'd expect to see a raccoon snuffling around at midnight. A sun bear, not so much.

New Research

Fear of Humans Is Forcing Daytime Animals Into Night Mode

The stress is pushing some animals to adjust their schedules—but not all will be quick enough to adapt

Don't judge a bat by its cover ... of Barry White.

New Research

Like Birds, Some Bats Warble to Woo Their Mates

They join an elite club of mammals—including mice, whales and humans—whose melodies convey complex information

An artist's impression of an adult and juvenile Lyrarapax unguispinus — awww, how adorable!

This Prehistoric Sea Creature Had Fanged, Killer Babies

The discovery of a juvenile Lyrarapax unguispinus fossil reveals that even the tiny terrors had a developed claw-like appendage and sharp teeth

New Research

Oldest Footprints Show When Life On Earth Got Legs

Tiny fossil tracks found in South China firmly date appendages back to the Ediacaran period

Megachirella, the mother-of-all-lizards (and snakes).

Cool Finds

Oldest Lizard Fossil Shows These Reptiles Are The Ultimate Survivors

The 250-million-year-old specimen from the Alps suggests that lizards evolved before Earth’s largest mass extinction—and thrived after it

The asteroid didn't just wipe out the dinosaurs—it wiped out the forests. Which meant anything that lived had to learn to live on the ground.

New Research

How the Ancestors of Birds Survived the Dino-Killing Asteroid

Forest cover was crucial to avian evolution, a new study on the mass extinction event asserts

Though the differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens may seem pronounced, scientists didn't always embrace the idea that humans evolved from other species.

How Do Scientists Identify New Species? For Neanderthals, It Was All About Timing and Luck

Even the most remarkable fossil find means nothing if scientists aren’t ready to see it for what it is

Charles Darwin was an avid fossil collector and during his expedition on the HMS Beagle, he was one of the first to collect remains of extinct South American mammals.

How Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Evolved

A new Smithsonian Book highlights firsthand accounts, diaries, letters and notebooks from aboard the HMS Beagle

Creating a phylogeny of all bird life will help researchers map birds' evolutionary relationships and create conservation plans.

New Research

What We Can Learn From a New Bird Tree of Life

Sequencing the DNA of more than 10,000 birds could reveal how best to conserve our feathery friends—and when they evolved from dinosaurs

Human evolution is “one of the highest hurdles — if not the highest hurdle — to science education in America,” says Smithsonian's Rick Potts. Here, an early human fossil found in Broken Hill, Zambia.

How to Talk With Evangelicals About Evolution

For two years, researchers from the Smithsonian traveled the country explaining the science of our shared origins

Fossil ostracods on a slide from the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The science team behind the recent Nature paper relied heavily on this collection for their analysis.

What the Large Penises of Tiny Crustaceans Tell Us About Evolution

Massive male sex organs have their perks, but in the long run, a little modesty pays

An x-ray of a Whiskered Prowfish (Neopataecus waterhousii), which has a "lachrymal saber." One species of waspfish features a saber that glows.

New Research

Why Did a Venomous Fish Evolve a Glowing Eye Spike?

A newly discovered “lachrymal saber” could illuminate relationships between an order of deadly fishes

New Research

Why Are Whales So Massive? It’s All About Energy

Marine mammal size is a delicate balance between chowing down and chilly waters

Regaliceratops peterhewsi, the “Hellboy Dinosaur”

New Research

Dinosaur Horns Were For Making Love, Not War

The elaborate horns and frills were more likely for attracting mates than fighting off enemies

Ali the Aardvark gets cozy as baby Winsol nurses at the Cincinnati Zoo. Ali is one of hundreds of animals whose milk samples are sent to the Smithsonian National Zoo’s milk repository for scientific research.

What Aardvark Milk Reveals about the Evolution of Lactation

Samples from the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Exotic Animal Milk Repository help scientists study the unifying trait of all mammals

These black- and red-colored pigments reveal that humans were using pigments, potentially to communicate status or identity, by around 300,000 years ago.

New Research

Colored Pigments and Complex Tools Suggest Humans Were Trading 100,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Believed

Transformations in climate and landscape may have spurred these key technological innovations

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