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Evolution

Amateur fossil hunters discovered a trackway left by a creature that might have looked like the one in this illustration. The finding raises new questions about the evolution of the earliest reptiles.

Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution

A new study suggests two fossil trackways found in Australia were made by an early amniote, a group that today includes reptiles, birds and mammals

A howler monkey infant, only a few days old, clings to a subadult white-faced capuchin monkey as it uses tools.

Capuchin Monkeys Caught on Camera ‘Abducting’ Baby Howler Monkeys in a Strange Tradition Seen for the First Time

Scientists on Panama’s Jicarón Island were mystified by photos and videos of young male capuchins carrying howler monkeys on their backs for days at a time

The Chicago Archaeopteryx, seen under UV light, shows soft tissues alongside the skeleton.

The Famous, Feathered Dinosaur Archaeopteryx Could Fly, Suggests New Study of a ‘Beautifully Preserved’ Fossil

The Chicago Archaeopteryx features more soft tissue and delicate skeletal details than any known fossil of its kind, and paleontologists discovered it has a set of feathers key to flight in modern birds

A new study suggests chimpanzees don't just perform self-care—in some cases, they look out for each other.

Chimpanzees Perform First Aid on Each Other, Study Finds, and It May Shed Light on the Evolution of Human Health Care

Researchers describe cases of chimps tending to others’ wounds, as well as a chimp that freed another from a snare

A new study finds chimpanzees drum against tree roots with rhythm, suggesting they share an evolutionary trait with humans passed down by a last common ancestor.

Researchers Discover That Chimps Drum Rhythmically, Suggesting Human Musicality Originated in Our Last Common Ancestor

Not only do chimpanzees maintain a rhythm while drumming on tree roots, but two subspecies use distinct tempos and techniques, according to a new study

A Haast’s eagle attacks a moa pair.

Why Have Birds Never Gotten as Big as T. Rex?

Even the most massive birds have never reached the sizes of their dinosaur relatives

New research suggests that land-based echidnas descended from semi-aquatic mammals. 

A Single Prehistoric Bone Might Rewrite the History of the World’s Strangest Mammals

Analysis of the fossil suggests that the only two egg-laying mammals, platypuses and land-based echidnas, both descended from a semi-aquatic creature

Human wounds take longer to heal than the wounds of other mammals, researchers find. That could be because we have fewer hair follicles, and stem cells in hair follicles help regrow skin after an injury.

Human Evolution Traded Fur for Sweat Glands—and Now, Our Wounds Take Longer to Heal Than Those of Other Mammals

Even compared to chimpanzees, one of our closest relatives, humans’ scrapes and cuts tend to stick around for more than twice as long, new research suggests

Two juvenile bonobos embrace in Lola Ya Bonobo Santuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. New research suggests female bonobos form coalitions to gain or maintain power in their societies.

Female Bonobos Assert Their Dominance Over Males by Banding Together, New Study Suggests

Bonobos, which are among our closest living relatives, live in rare societies where females tend to outrank males, even though males are larger and stronger. Scientists compiled decades of observations to explain why

An artist's impression of the Late Cretaceous crocodilian Deinosuchus riograndensis and a much smaller, early alligator relative.

The Ancient ‘Terror Crocodiles’ of North America Weren’t Alligators After All, DNA and Fossils Suggest

A new study indicates the giant reptile Deinosuchus is not a close relative of modern alligators, as scientists previously thought, and it might have thrived by tolerating saltwater

A species of remipede known from the Caicos Islands. The photograph was taken by a member of a multinational team looking for rare species. Remipedes are crustaceans that are close relatives to insects.

You Might Think of Shrimp as Bugs of the Sea. But a Remarkable Discovery Shows the Opposite: Bugs Are Actually Shrimp of the Land

A recent study suggests that insects branched out from crustaceans on the tree of life

A young bonobo female responds to group members.

There Might Be Something Human in the Way Bonobos Communicate—Their Calls Share a Key Trait With Our Language, Study Suggests

Researchers attempted to decode bonobo calls by recording their social context, then analyzed how the primates string together these vocalizations

A technician climbs a tower to locate lightning strikes in the study area on Panama's Barro Colorado Island.

Being Struck by Lightning Is No Big Deal for This Tropical Tree—the Zap Even Gives It a Boost

The almendro tree may have evolved to attract lightning, which helps clear more space for it to grow, according to new research

The Galápagos yellow warbler is a genetically distinct subspecies of the yellow warbler, which might be familiar to residents of the United States.

Traffic Noise May Be Making These Bright Yellow Birds More Aggressive in the Galápagos Islands, Study Suggests

Male Galápagos yellow warblers appear to be shifting their behavior and adjusting their calls in response to the din of passing vehicles

Budgerigars are the only animals known so far to have language-producing centers of neurons akin to those in humans, according to new research.

Can Parrot Brains Teach Us About Human Speech? Study Finds Budgies Have Language-Producing Regions That Resemble Our Own

The parakeets commonly kept as pets could offer fresh clues about vocal learning and potential treatments for speech disorders

A male central Fijian banded iguana from Ovalau Island, Fiji.

Iguanas Floated a Whopping 5,000 Miles From North America to Fiji on Rafts of Plants in a Record-Setting Trip, Study Suggests

Since most iguana species live in the Americas, biologists have long debated how they could have arrived on the remote Pacific island in the first place

A bone tool shaped on a 1.5-million-year-old elephant humerus

Cool Finds

Human Ancestors Were Making Bone Tools One Million Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

Archaeologists have discovered a collection of prehistoric animal bones in Tanzania that suggests early humans figured out how to transfer tool-making techniques “from stone to bone” 1.5 million years ago

Ice calves off the Breidamerkurjokull, a glacier in Iceland. Some scientists suggest prehistoric glaciers hold the answers to how life evolved on Earth.

How Enormous Glaciers on the Frozen ‘Snowball Earth’ Might Have Bulldozed the Path to Complex Life on Our Planet

A new study suggests glaciers carved metals out from the Earth’s surface 700 million years ago, leading to chemical reactions in the oceans that set the stage for early animal evolution

Cells producing the NOVA1 protein are shown in green in the brain of a mouse. A specific variant of this protein is unique to humans, and researchers suggest it is linked to spoken language development.

Scientists Identify a Gene Linked to Spoken Language, and It Makes Lab Mice Squeak Differently

A new study suggests the unique human version of the NOVA1 protein developed after our ancestors split from Neanderthals on the evolutionary tree, and it might have given us a competitive edge over our relatives

Scientists suggest finding extraterrestial intelligence is more likely than thought, arguing that complex life is not a cosmic fluke.

Intelligent Life May Be More Likely to Exist on Other Planets Than Previously Thought, Scientists Say

Researchers present an alternative to the long-held “hard steps” theory to explain the evolution of complex life, suggesting it’s the natural outcome of a habitable environment rather than a lucky break

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