Evolution11764 articles archived since 1845

Night Flights Are No Sweat for Tropical Bees

New research uses night vision to see how nocturnal bees navigate the dark.

Meet the Bat Woman and Bat Man of India

They sealed their love with dead bats. Now these researchers are on a mission to save India’s endangered chiropteran species together.

Kids’ Fossilized Handprints May Be Some of the World’s Oldest Art

Ice age impressions in limestone show that human ancestors inhabited the area

During a Rodent Quadrathlon, Researchers Learn That Ground Squirrels Have Personalities

The rodents’ personalities may help them to secure territory and avoid prey.

When Lord Kelvin Nearly Killed Darwin’s Theory

The eminent 19th-century physicist argued—wrongly, it turned out—that Earth wasn’t old enough to have let natural selection play out

These Baby Bats, like Us, Were Born to Babble

The greater sac-winged bat develops its own language in much the way we do.

The Story of Us

How Did Neanderthals and Other Ancient Humans Learn to Count?

Archaeological finds suggest that people developed numbers tens of thousands of years ago. Scholars are now exploring the first detailed hypotheses about this life-changing invention

The Secret behind Songbirds’ Magnetic Migratory Sense

A molecule found in the retinas of European robins seems to be able to sense weak magnetic fields, such as that of Earth, after it is exposed to light.

These Dinosaurs Had a Complicated Air Conditioner in Their Skull

Cooling 5,000-pound, armor-plated giants was no small feat.

Moths Have an Acoustic Invisibility Cloak to Stay under Bats’ Radar

New research finds they fly around on noise-cancelling wings

Denial of Evolution Is a Form of White Supremacy

As museums reopen let’s introduce ourselves, and our children, to the original Black ancestors of all human beings

See the Beautiful Color of Rare Birds from Every Angle and in Three Dimensions

A new project will create high-definition interactive models of 2,000 feathered flyers.

Cancer Clues Found in Gene behind ‘Lemon Frost’ Gecko Color

Research has solved a macabre mystery, and the finding could one day help efforts to catch human melanomas earlier

This Newly Discovered Species of Tree Hyrax Goes Bark in the Night

A study makes the case for the new species based on its looks, genes and sounds

Animal Kids Listen to Their Parents Even before Birth

Human children: please take note of the behavior of prebirth zebra finches

Human Evolution Led to an Extreme Thirst for Water

We are more dependent on water than many other mammals and have developed a host of clever strategies for obtaining it

Puppies Understand You Even at a Young Age, Most Adorable Study of the Year Confirms

Researchers in the happiest lab in the world tested 375 pups and found they connected with people by eight weeks

At the Bottom of Lake Huron, an Ancient Mystery Materializes

The air was likely frigid as the hunter lit a small fire. The caribou would come in the morning—forced through the narrow strip of marshland where he camped. There was nowhere else to go...

Bats on Helium Reveal an Innate Sense of the Speed of Sound

A new experiment shows that bats are born with a fixed reference for the speed of sound—and living in lighter air can throw it off.