Nam Anh / Unsplash
A new theory linking metabolism and size shows how evolution, not physics, is the driving force behind many of life’s patterns.
Humans are the only animals that express their thoughts in full sentences.
Oliver Rossi/DigitalVision via Getty Images
A language scientist explains that talking was never invented but has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.
James Lovelock outside his home laboratory.
Homer Sykes/Alamy Stock Photo
Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis suggested that Earth could be considered a single, self-regulating organism.
A rare find — a fossil of Stanleycaris hirpex with the nervous system preserved.
(Jean Bernard Caron/Royal Ontario Museum)
The discovery of a fossil over 500 million years old reveals new information. Its brain and nervous system are remarkably preserved, filling in some gaps in what we know about arthropod evolution.
A great hammerhead shark’s two eyes can be 3 feet apart on opposite sides of its skull.
Ken Kiefer 2/Image Source via Getty Images
The first hammerhead shark was likely the result of a genetic deformity. A biologist explains how shark DNA reveals hammerheads’ history.
Tritylodon, a therapsid, reconstructed as a night dwelling warm blooded animal. Note the steam coming out of its lungs.
Illustrated by Luzia Soares
Warm-bloodedness is the key to what makes mammals what they are today. That’s why working out when it emerged in mammal ancestors matters.
An artist’s vision of Qikiqtania enjoying its fully aquatic, free-swimming lifestyle.
Alex Boersma
The newly discovered species – Qikiqtania – highlights evolution’s twisty, tangled path.
Reconstruction of Haikouichthys ercaicunensis based on fossil evidence.
Talifero/Wikimedia Commons
A biologist explains how researchers nail down the age of ancient fossils thanks to a physical process called radioactive decay.
Marmorerpeton
Brennan Stokkermans
The discovery shakes up what scientists thought they knew about salamander evolution.
Flickr
DNA analysis is beginning to reveal how wrong the long-accepted evolutionary tree is.
Tombstones investigated in new research, most from 1338.
P.-G. Borbone/Nature
The Black Death evolved around Kyrgyzstan, according to new research.
davidpstephens / shutterstock
As the oceans warmed, great whites were more adaptable.
Michael Kearney
Few animals have babies without sex, so biologists assumed asexual reproduction must have evolutionary drawbacks. But a self-cloning Australian grasshopper shows things might be more complicated.
In Canada, purple loosestrife is an invasive species.
(Shutterstock)
Evolution by natural selection is a potent agent of change, allowing species to adapt to new and changing environments. But is it sustainable?
New research has compared the brains of chimps and macaques with those of humans.
CherylRamalho/Shutterstock
Human brains seem to be wired differently to those of chimps or macaques.
Shutterstock
A long-term study of wild animal populations shows each generation is on average almost 20% genetically ‘better’ than their parents at surviving and reproducing.
Touching your face is a common stress signal.
from shutterstock.com
A first-of-its-kind study investigated what’s going on in other people’s minds during your nail-biting moments.
Martin Whiting
Researchers wanted to understand what happens when chameleons – animals that display dynamic colour change – find themselves in an environment without their natural predators.
Shutterstock
Live birth has evolved independently more than 150 times. The underlying biophysical processes all look quite similar, but new research shows they use completely different genetic tools.
Diegoalerus was probably around the size of a bobcat.
Erick Toussaint, San Diego Natural History Museum (licensed under CC by 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
The first sabre-toothed cat-like predator was not much larger than a bobcat, but it had long teeth and a strong jaw to cut through thick skin.