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Evolution

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

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

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