Bird Fossil Shared Earth with T. rex
Dating back 67 million years, this representative of the group of modern birds has been dubbed the Wonderchicken (which is not an April Fools’ Day joke).
Evolution11665 articles archived since 1845
City Birds: Big-Brained with Few Offspring or Small-Brained with a Lot
To make it in urban areas, birds tend to be either large-brained and able to produce few offspring or small-brained and extremely fertile. In natural habitats, most birds brains are of average size...
Cooped Up at Home? Help Scientists Spot Penguins from Space or Seek Out Galaxies
Some citizen science projects can be done during quarantine
Tiny Wormlike Creature May Be Our Oldest Known Ancestor
The bilateral organism crawled on the seafloor, taking in organic matter at one end and dumping the remains out the other some 555 million years ago.
Self-Terminating Biospheres
Is life’s persistence on Earth really the norm?
Blood Ties: Vampire Bats Build Trust to Become Food-Sharing Pals
New research examines how the animals begin close, blood-sharing partnerships
David Quammen: How Animal Infections Spill Over to Humans
In this 2012 interview, David Quammen talks about his book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, which is highly relevant to the emergence of the coronavirus that has changed our lives...
Is This Indonesian Cave Painting the Earliest Portrayal of a Mythical Story?
Archaeologists have dated figurative rock art from Sulawesi to at least 43,900 years ago
Smallest Known Dinosaur Found in Amber
A bird skull from Myanmar hints at a lost world of tiny fossils that are waiting to be unearthed
Three Fourths of Dogs Are Angst-Ridden—and Owners May Be Partly to Blame
Overly cautious humans and genetics may contribute to behavior problems in a survey of 13,700 Finnish animals
The Noninevitability of Life
In a vast game of chance and competition, things can get ugly
Some Dinosaurs Regurgitated Pellets Just like Birds
Small, feathery dinosaurs jettisoned indigestible food just like some modern birds do
My Own Personal Extinction
At the end of her time at Scientific American, Riley Black reflects on the history of Laelaps
Saber-Toothed Protomammal was a Quick Healer
An injury on an ancient bone hints that a saber-toothed carnivore healed fast for its time
Ability to Take on Diverse Roles May Be Key to Which Animals Survive Mass Extinction
An analysis spanning geologic history found that species able to occupy different ecological niches have a survival edge
Jackdaws Have Different Rules for Different Flocks
New work shows how jackdaw flocks (sometimes) transition from chaos to order
Barbarians Worshipped Meteorites in Pagan Temple
Originally published in September 1899
Kirk, Spock and Darwin
Duke University evolutionary biologist Mohamed A. F. Noor talks about his book Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about Evolution, Genetics, and Life on Other Worlds ...
Feral Dogs Respond to Human Hand Cues
Most feral dogs that did not run away from humans were able to respond to hand cues about the location of food—even without training.
Footprint Find Could Be a “Holy Grail” of Pterosaur Research
How early pterosaurs walked on the ground has been a complete mystery. Now the first known trackways of their footprints offer answers
