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Evolution

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

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

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