Evolution

It’s long been considered an evolutionary puzzle, but new research suggests this may be the wrong way to think about it

Ground-penetrating radar has the potential to reveal a world of hidden footprints

A shocking discovery made a decade and a half ago is changing our understanding of human evolution

Cats are clingier to their human owners than their reputation would suggest. Karen Hopkin reports.

A skeleton that was kept in storage for 60 years is a Jurassic surprise

Modern scientists revive a crude form of biological determinism

A fossil uncovered in Brazil adds new details about the earliest days of predatory dinosaurs

A strange chromosome may have provided fodder for the evolution of new traits

The pumpkin’s ancestor was an incredibly bitter, tennis-ball-sized squash—but it was apparently a common snack for mastodons. Christopher Intagliata reports.

In cold, northern climates, eggs tend to be darker and browner—heat-trapping colors that allow parents to spend a bit more time away from the nest. Christopher Intagliata reports. 

Green crabs learned to navigate a maze without making a single wrong turn—and remembered the skill weeks later. Christopher Intagliata reports. 

Genetic evidence traces our origins to a hunter-gatherer community that lived 200,000 years ago, but the study has generated controversy