Evolution
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
Evolution11788 articles archived since 1845
Evolution
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
Evolution
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...
Evolution
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.
Evolution
New Process Helps Unscramble Dinosaur Boneyard Chaos
Piecing together a paleontological puzzle
Evolution
Evolution’s Favorite Fish Diversify through ‘Noncoding’ Genes
Proliferating cichlids may specialize using regulatory DNA
Evolution
Who Laps Whom on the Walking Track—Tyrannosaurus rex or You? Science Has a New Answer
An analysis of the animal’s walking speed suggests that T. rex ’s walking pace was close to that of a human. It’s too bad the king of the dinosaurs didn’t just walk when hungry...
Evolution
Genes Linked to Self-Awareness in Modern Humans Were Less Common in Neandertals
Brain networks for memory and planning may have set us apart from Neandertals—and chimps
Evolution
How 3-D Scanning Is Reinventing Paleoanthropology
It lets us excavate ancient fossils while preserving information about the sediments that hold them—crucial to understanding their age, among other things
Evolution
Genomes Reveal Humanity’s Journey into the Americas
DNA has upended neat and tidy accounts of the peopling of the American continents
Culture
How to Make a Hippogriff Fly and Other Flights of Fancy
A paleontologist and an illustrator team up to make mythical creatures follow biomechanical rules
Evolution
Boston’s Pigeons Coo, ‘Wicked’; New York’s Birds Coo, ‘Fuhgeddaboudit’
The two cities’ rock doves are genetically distinct, research shows.
Evolution
The Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Created the Amazon Rain Forest
Fossilized pollen and leaves reveal that the meteorite that caused the extinction of nonavian dinosaurs also reshaped South America’s plant communities to yield the planet’s largest rain forest...
Evolution
A Tsunami Likely Hurled Huge Rocks onto a Tiny Island
A Caribbean island’s giant rocks were thought to be deposited by enormous waves
Evolution
Chimpanzees Show Altruism while Gathering around the Juice Fountain
New research tries to tease out whether our closest animal relatives can be selfless
Evolution
That Mouse in Your House—It’s Smarter, Thanks to You
Scientists studied three varieties of house mice and found that those who had lived alongside humans the longest were also the craftiest at solving food puzzles. Christopher Intagliata reports...
Evolution
Prehistoric Plankton Became Predators to Survive a Mass Extinction
When the sun disappeared, tiny coccoliths turned to hunting
Evolution
Neandertals Probably Perceived Speech Quite Well
Could they speak, too? Did they proposition modern humans in an interspecies creole language?
Evolution
An Ancient Proto-City Reveals the Origin of Home
The 9,000-year-old settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey shows how humans began putting down roots
Evolution
Dinosaur Discoveries Are Booming
Fossils are being found worldwide, and there are plenty more to come
