Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Evolution

An artistic representation of the newly discovered species, Baminornis zhenghensis, with the preserved bones highlighted.

Cool Finds

Scientists Discover ‘Groundbreaking’ Jurassic Fossil That Could Overhaul the Evolutionary History of Birds

Researchers in China found Baminornis zhenghensis, which lived at roughly the same time as the famous Archaeopteryx but looked much more like modern birds due to its short tail

A humpback whale

Humpback Whale Song Shares a Key Pattern With Human Language That Might Make It Easier for the Animals to Learn

Despite humans and whales being separated by millions of years of evolution, our vocalizations follow the same principle outlined in Zipf’s law

Parts of the deep Pacific Ocean are covered in metallic lumps known as polymetallic nodules. A study published last year suggested they produce oxygen without sunlight.

Scientists Who Found Mysterious ‘Dark Oxygen’ on the Ocean Floor Plan a New Expedition, Hoping to Settle Disputes

Last year, the team made headlines when it published a paper describing how metal lumps at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean seemed to produce oxygen without sunlight

Elephants, bats, rabbits and other mammals have exceptional hearing—and their outer ears may be a key reason why.

Why Do Mammals Have Outer Ears? Scientists Are Getting Closer to Solving the Mystery

Two new studies offer insights into the evolution and development of external ears, which appear in humans and other mammals but aren’t found in reptiles, birds or amphibians

Hand-drawn illustration of two of the seven sampled molars from Australopithecus

Ape-Like Human Ancestors Were Largely Vegetarian 3.3 Million Years Ago in South Africa, Fossil Teeth Reveal

Scientists suggest meat consumption was pivotal to humans’ development of larger brains, but the transition probably didn’t start with Australopithecus, according to a new study

A new study on "contagious urination" only looked at captive chimpanzees, but researchers suspect the phenomenon may also exist in the wild.

For Chimpanzees, Peeing May Be Contagious—Just Like Yawning Is for Humans, Study Finds

Scientists suggest captive chimpanzees engage in ‘socially contagious urination’—that is, when one primate starts peeing, others quickly follow suit

Archaeologists and Masai landowners conducted excavations at Engaji Nanyori in Tanzania.

Homo Erectus Thrived in a Desert, Study Finds, Suggesting the Early Humans Could Adapt to Extreme Environments

New research suggests modern humans aren’t the only hominin species capable of “ecological flexibility”

Two newly discovered, spiky creatures from the Silurian period—nicknamed Punk and Emo—are helping scientists reveal the early history of mollusks.

Cool Finds

Meet Punk and Emo, Two Angsty-Looking Fossils From 430 Million Years Ago That Shed Light on Early Mollusk Evolution

The prehistoric creatures look to be sporting a punk hairstyle and emo bangs, and one of them seemingly moved like an inchworm

A young chimpanzee looks on during an outing to an island in the Douala-Edea National Park in Cameroon, on December 15, 2024.

From Chimps Eating Medicinal Plants to Footprints Tracking Our Early Relatives, Here Are the Most Significant Human Evolution Discoveries of 2024

Smithsonian paleoanthropologists explore how the year brought us closer to understanding ancient human relatives and origins

In 2024, engineers used a fluorescent protein found in some jellyfish to create a non-toxic spray that highlights fingerprints at a crime scene.

Seven Scientific Discoveries From 2024 That Could Lead to New Inventions

From indestructible tardigrades to body-merging comb jellies, animals can teach humans so much about medicine, robotics, aging and survival

HMS Beagle sails through the Straits of Magellan

On This Day in History

On This Day in 1831, Charles Darwin Embarked on a Journey That Led to His Groundbreaking Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

Darwin was just 22 when he set out on a voyage that would change the way humanity understands itself and the natural world

A Nile crocodile.

Scientists Unlock the Secrets of Crocodile Skin and Its Irregular, Mystifying Patterns

The scales on crocodiles’ heads are very different from the skin appendages of other animals and even distinct from the scales on the rest of their bodies

A fossil skull of a prehistoric amphibian, found in a 230-million-year-old burrow in Wyoming, turned out to be from an unknown species.

A Paleontologist Cracked Open a Rock and Discovered a Prehistoric Amphibian With a Clever Survival Strategy

Named “Ninumbeehan dookoodukah” by Eastern Shoshone students and elders, the creature burrowed in riverbeds to stay moist during extreme droughts

An illustration of two Skiphosoura bavarica in flight shows how the reptiles might have appeared in Jurassic skies.

Paleontologists Discover a New Pterosaur, Filling a Key Gap on the Evolutionary Timeline for These Flying Reptiles

Revealed by a German fossil, the newly described species sheds light on questions that scientists have been puzzling over for nearly two centuries

By examining the fossils of ancient creatures, scientists are able to see the origins of features that make mammals different from other animals.

How to Make a Mammal in Nine Evolutionary Steps

From the formation of inner ear bones to the rise of hair to cover our bodies, these developments made us distinct from other animals

Silesaurids—including Silesaurus opolensis (pictured above) and the newly described fossil from Brazil (not pictured)—are usually considered non-dinosaurs. Some researchers are suggesting they might be more closely related to certain dinosaurs than previously thought.

A Rare Triassic Fossil Found in Brazil Could Shed Light on the Origin of Dinosaurs

The 237-million-year-old remains are among the oldest silesaurid fossils ever found, adding to paleontologists’ understanding of this still-mysterious group of prehistoric reptiles

The researchers studied the dusky lory (pictured) and the rosy-faced lovebird.

A Simple Chemical Shift Explains Why Parrots Are So Colorful, Study Suggests

Unlike other birds, which get pigments from their diets, parrots produce their own—but scientists never fully understood the underlying mechanisms, until now

The arthropod fossil used to describe a new species (left) and CT scans of the specimen (right)

Cool Finds

Scientists Reveal Rare 450-Million-Year-Old Arthropod Fossil Preserved in Glittering Fool’s Gold

The critter found in New York represents a new, extinct species of arthropod that could shed light on the evolution of today’s insects, crustaceans and spiders

A visualization of Tiktaalik roseae, an extinct aquatic animal with fossils that shed light on the evolution of land animals from marine animals millions of years ago.

New ‘Paleo-Robots’ Could Shed Light on Animal Evolution, Revealing How Some Fish Evolved to ‘Walk’ on Land

A team of roboticists, paleontologists and biologists are building robots to simulate crucial evolutionary developments that can’t be tested with static fossils

A 2007 illustration of Arthropleura, the largest known arthropod, which grew nearly as large as a car. New research suggests previous visualizations of the animal's head were incorrect.

Fossils Reveal the Face of an Extinct Nine-Foot-Long ‘Millipede,’ the Largest Arthropod to Ever Live

Scientists in France solved the evolutionary mystery of this prehistoric monster, which resembles both the centipedes and millipedes of today

Page 7 of 48