Does Dancing Just Feel Good, or Did It Help Early Humans Survive?
Do humans dance just for fun, or did it help our ancestors survive thousands of years ago?
Evolution6629 articles archived since 1845
Reverse Engineering Mysterious 500-Million-Year-Old Fossils That Confound Our Tree of Life
A new high-tech approach is helping paleontologists better understand the link between a set of ancient fossils and modern animals
Teeth Tell Tale of Hippo's Quick Spread Across Africa
Fossils from ancient hippo ancestor suggest that grass helped the animals to conquer a continent
How Cats Leapt from the Wild to Our Sofas
Tamed cats spread across the globe beginning almost 10,000 years ago, becoming the rodent-killing helpers of early farmers, mariners and Vikings. This video was reproduced with permission and was first published on June 19, 2017. It is a Nature Video production.
How a Math Formula Could Decide the Fate of Endangered U.S. Species
Feds consider “conservation triage” that would let some animals go extinct to save funds for protecting others
Quest for Clues to Humanity's First Fires
How and when our ancestors mastered flames remains a hotly debated question. Researchers are hunting for answers buried in ancient ash and baked soils
Elon Musk Publishes Plans for Colonizing Mars
The billionaire entrepreneur and founder of SpaceX wants to make humanity a "multi-planetary species”
Whatever Happened to the Greenland Vikings?
They ruled the icy outpost for hundreds of years before their colonies collapsed. New findings are elucidating their puzzling decline
No, There Wasn't an Advanced Civilization 12,000 Years Ago
Did an advanced civilization disappear more than 12,000 years ago?
Ancient Fossils from Morocco Mess Up Modern Human Origins
Dated to more than 300,000 years ago, the finds raise key questions about the defining features of Homo sapiens and how our kind came to be
Living Large: How Whales Got to Be So Enormous
A new theory traces their gargantuan size to changing food sources during ice ages
Living Large: How Whales Got to Be So Enormous
A new theory traces their gargantuan size to changing food sources during ice ages
The Nose Takes a Starring Role
The star-nosed mole has what is very likely the world's fastest and most fantastic nose
Searching for Life at the Bottom of the Arctic
Creatures living among the hydrothermal vents burbling under the Arctic Ocean's ice layer have been historically difficult to study, but an underwater vehicle, the Nereid Under Ice, can get close to the vents to peek in at the animals and their homes without disturbing their environment with icebreaking ships. Scientific American caught up with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scientist, Chris German, on the R/V Neil Armstrong to discuss how studying these Arctic dwellers could shape our understanding of how life evolved.
Sharklike Fossil Fills In the Jaws Family Tree
A new analysis of an ancient specimen helps to flesh out the marine predators’ evolution
Rise of the Tyrannosaurs
New fossils put T. rex in its place
Life at the Bottom: The Prolific Afterlife of Whales
On the deep seafloor, the carcasses of the largest mammals give life to unique ecosystems
The Human Nose Knows More Than We Think
A look at the body of olfactory science shows people’s reputation for having a poor sense of smell is a myth
The Extraordinary Evolution of Cichlid Fishes
Cichlid fishes have undergone a mind-boggling degree of speciation. New research is revealing features of their genomes that primed them to diversify so spectacularly
Fixing the Tomato: CRISPR Edits Correct Plant-Breeding Snafu
Geneticists harness two mutations to improve on 10,000 years of tomato domestication
