Animals
Mammals That Live Together Live Longer
Mammal species that live in groups seems to live longer than those that lead solitary lives
Evolution11804 articles archived since 1845
Evolution
How Plants’ Plumbing Let Them Conquer the World
To protect from deadly drought and make it on land, plants developed complicated inner plumbing
Epidemiology
Why COVID’s XBB.1.5 ‘Kraken’ Variant Is So Contagious
A new variant of the virus that causes COVID has mutations that make it more transmissible, but vaccines are still likely to protect against severe disease
Vaccines
The Biggest Health and Biology Breakthroughs of 2022
From reviving dead pig organs to measuring viruses in our poop, here are some of the most intriguing medical advances of the year
Evolution
Ancient Sawfish Help to Illuminate Our Teeth’s Scaly Origins
Weird new evidence on tooth evolution tips the scales even more toward scales
Evolution
Chances of Finding COVID-Causing Virus Ancestor ‘Almost Nil,’ Virologists Say
A genome analysis finds SARS-CoV-2 and bat coronaviruses shared an ancestor just a few years ago, but extensive recombination has muddied the picture
Evolution
Geologic Activity Lets Microbes Mingle Deep Underground
Tiny subterranean cracks can upend aquifer microbes’ ecology
Evolution
Fossils Upend Conventional Wisdom about Evolution of Human Bipedalism
For most of human evolution, multiple species with different ways of walking upright coexisted
Evolution
Vertebrates May Have Used Vocal Communication More Than 100 Million Years Earlier Than We Thought
Animals with a backbone may have first emitted something akin to bleeps, grunts, crackles, toots and snorts more than 400 million years ago
Evolution
Penis Worm’s Ancient Cousin Fossilized with Its Doughnut-Shaped Brain Intact
The fossilized embryo of a Cambrian worm holds the preserved remains of a tiny brain
Anthropology
Discoveries about Ancient Human Evolution Win 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Svante Pääbo’s work on sequencing the DNA of Neandertals and Denisovans, which won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, revealed surprising interbreeding among human species...
Paleontology
The Oldest 3-D Heart from Our Vertebrate Ancestors Has Been Discovered
Fish fossils from Western Australia preserve the oldest 3-D hearts, livers, stomachs and intestines in a jawed vertebrate
Dinosaurs
If T. Rex’s Beady-Eyed Glare Terrifies You, It Should
Top-predator dinosaurs of the Cretaceous may have traded big eyes for a bigger bite
Animals
In a First, Tiny Crustaceans Are Found to ‘Pollinate’ Seaweed like Bees of the Sea
Small marine critters ferry around seaweed sex cells, the first recorded example of “pollination” in algae
Archaeology
How Humans’ Ability to Digest Milk Evolved from Famine and Disease
A landmark study is the first major effort to quantify how lactose tolerance developed
Animals
New Evidence Emerges in Mystery of When Mammals Became Warm-Blooded
Fossil animals’ inner ear structures offer clues on when endothermy, or warm-bloodedness, evolved
Evolution
Toxic Slime Contributed to Earth’s Worst Mass Extinction—And It’s Making a Comeback
Global warming fueled rampant overgrowth of microbes at the end of the Permian period. Such lethal blooms may be on the rise again
Dinosaurs
Feathers May Have Helped Dinosaurs Survive Their First Apocalypse
Geologic evidence for a freezing arctic suggests dinosaurs could have weathered an epoch-ending volcanic winter
Evolution
Heated Debate Persists over the Origins of Complex Cells
Were mitochondria a driving evolutionary force or just a late addition?
Evolution
Ancient Giraffe Relative Was Evolution’s Headbutting Champion, Perhaps Besting Dinosaurs
Natural selection propels the giraffe family to absolute extremes—and it is not just about the absurdly long necks
