Evolution

The use of poison on arrows marked a revolution in human hunting technology—new evidence suggests it happened tens of thousands of years earlier than previously known

The sharp, elongated bills of green hermit hummingbirds aren’t just fine-tuned for feeding; they also allow males to joust like knights over mates

New research on strange cycad plants offers a glimpse into the prehistoric origins of pollination

Making fire on demand was a milestone in the lives of our early ancestors. But the question of when that skill first arose has been difficult for scientists to pin down

Two new studies dig into the long, curving path that cats took toward domestication

Newly identified bones tie the mysterious Burtele foot to a new Australopithecus species that lived alongside Lucy more than three million years ago

An enigmatic group of fossil organisms has finally been identified—and is changing the story of how plants took root on land

This lovable Star Wars droid is helping to shed light on why some bird species are better at mimicking sounds than others

City-dwelling raccoons seem to be evolving a shorter snout—a telltale feature of our pets and other domesticated animals

A surprising diversity of dog shapes and sizes evolved long before the Victorians began making modern breeds

This finding is the first documented case of colonial behavior between two solitary species of spider

Controversial evidence hints that complex life might have emerged hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought—and possibly more than once