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Evolution

New Research

Without Oceans, Earth-Like Life Probably Can’t Evolve on Other Planets

It’s not all about the planet’s distance from its star, as researchers previously thought

Cool Finds

You Can Now Riffle Through the Same Library Charles Darwin Used Aboard the Beagle

The digital library includes 195,000 pages of text and 5,000 illustrations

New Research

We Choose Friends Who Are Genetically Similar to Us

On average, our friends are like the genetic equivalents of fourth cousins

None

New Research

Watch the Unnerving Gait of This 410 Million-Year-Old Arachnid

Working from well-preserved fossils, paleontologists reproduced the trigonotarbids’ walk

New Research

When Homo Sapiens Began to Emerge, Herpes Was Already Waiting

Herpes first evolved in chimpanzees before colonizing the cells of Homo erectus

The heads of human ancestors like Australopithecus afarensis may have evolved to better withstand blows to the face.

New Research

Were Ancient Humans Built for Boxing?

Males may have bigger bones and stronger jaws to better withstand getting hit in the face

This is the first pterosaur egg ever found that had not been flattened, discovered by paleontologists at the Turpan-Hami Basin in northwestern China.

Found: 120-Million-Year-Old Colony of Fossilized Flying Reptiles, Plus Their Eggs

The eggs were unearthed in the midst of a boneyard of pterosaurs, lending insight into the behaviors of ancient flying reptiles

A Cyclosa ginnaga spider perched amid its silk web decoration looks strangely like the result of a bird relieved itself in the forest understory.

New Research

This Spider Web Was Deliberately Spun to Look Like Bird Poop

It’s not artistic license. The arachnid avoids predators by masquerading as bird droppings, say scientists

He makes it look so easy.

New Research

Humans Gave Up Our Strength to Support Our Big Heads

Evolution may have traded muscle mass for big brains

Tiktaalik roseae had fish-like fins, a flattened skull (similar to a crocodile), and is thought to have lived in shallow water, using its fins to prop itself up.

Did the Evolution of Animal Intelligence Begin With Tiktaalik?

How one marvelously preserved fossil sheds light on how the vertebrate invasion of land took place

A red-winged blackbird, the males of which (pictured) feature bright red spots. Females, on the other hand, are a mottled brown.

New Research

Drab Female Birds Were Once As Flashy As Their Male Mates

Biologists always assumed that sexual selection primarily drove differences in looks between male and female birds, but a new study challenges that notion

A drawing of the West Indian or Caribbean monk seal based on a specimen collected in Matanzas, Cuba.

New Research

For the First Time in More Than 100 Years, Scientists Discover New Seal Genus

The now extinct Caribbean monk seal shares an evolutionary connection with the endangered Hawaiian monk seal—one more reason to save the species

In her seminal rose diagram, Florence Nightingale demonstrated that far more soldiers died from preventable epidemic diseases (blue) than from wounds inflicted on the battlefield (red) or other causes (black) during the Crimean War (1853-56). “She did this with a very specific purpose of driving through all sorts of military reforms in military hospitals subsequent to the Crimean War," says Kieniewicz.

Art Meets Science

Infographics Through the Ages Highlight the Visual Beauty of Science

An exhibit at the British Library focuses on the aesthetic appeal of 400 years of scientific data

Cool Finds

In an Emergency, We Act Like Ants

Like many animals, we tend to clump together when danger presents itself

An experiment with corals taken from the warm waters of the U.S. National Park of American Samoa showed that at least one species can quickly adapt to rising heat.

New Research

This Coral Has Shown It Can Weather Warmer Waters

Corals are not expected to do well with climate change. But the ability to adapt to warmer oceans could give them more time

Female on top: A female Neotrogla insect mates with a male in a cave in eastern Brazil.

In This Community of Brazilian Cave Insects, Females Wear the Penises, Literally

A genus of insect that inhabits caves in eastern Brazil has reversed sex organs, say scientists

New Research

How the Zebra Got Its Stripes, According to Science

Rather than acting as camouflage or social signals, zebra stripes seem to deter biting flies

A pastoral cattle herder in near the Meatu district in Tanzania.

Africans’ Ability To Digest Milk Co-Evolved With Livestock Domestication

Lactose tolerance spread throughout Africa along human pastoral migration routes, say scientists

Which Animal is the Smartest, How Did Fingernails Evolve and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Breadcrump sponges, Halichondria panicea, can survive with minimal oxygen.

New Research

Earth’s First Animals May Have Lived in a Dead Zone

Breadcrumb sponges show how Earth’s first animals may have got by with barely any oxygen

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