Giant Volcano Rewrites the Story of Seafloor Formation
Tamu Massif and dozens of other seafloor volcanoes formed like sheet cakes, not layer cakes
Evolution11742 articles archived since 1845
Life inside the Extinction
These are startling times, but there’s a way out
Virus-Infected Bees Practice Social Distancing
Bees infected with a virus cut back on interactions within their hive but find it easier to get past sentries at neighboring hives.
Where Is Everybody Else in the Universe?
Guest host W. Wayt Gibbs talks with Jason Wright, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, about what’s known as the Fermi paradox: In a universe of trillions of planets, where is everybody?...
Birds on Rhinos’ Back Help Them Avoid Poachers
Oxpeckers riding on rhinoceroses feast on ticks, and their calls warn the nearsighted herbivores about approaching humans.
Possible Dinosaur DNA Has Been Found
New discoveries have raised the possibility of exploring dino genetics, but controversy surrounds the results
Signs of Modern Human Cognition Were Found in an Indonesian Cave
Painted images of intriguing human-animal hybrids are signs of modern thought
Melting Ice Reveals a “Lost” Viking-Era Pass in Norway’s Mountains
Artifacts show people used the route for 1,000 years—then abandoned it, possibly amid a plague
Livestock, Pets and People Will Dominate Future Fossils
The bones of humans and their domesticated animals will overwhelm biodiversity in the fossil record
What’s a Narwhal’s Tusk For?
Although the tusk can be a weapon, the variation in tusk length among animals of similar body size points to it being primarily a mating status signal.
Stone Age String Strengthens Case for Neandertal Smarts
Our extinct cousins had fiber technology. Stop calling them dumb already
Why We Have So Many Problems with Our Teeth
Our choppers are crowded, crooked and riddled with cavities. It hasn’t always been this way
Self-Terminating Biospheres
Is life’s persistence on Earth really the norm?
Bird Fossil Shared Earth with T. rex
Dating back 67 million years, this representative of the group of modern birds has been dubbed the Wonderchicken (which is not an April Fools’ Day joke).
City Birds: Big-Brained with Few Offspring or Small-Brained with a Lot
To make it in urban areas, birds tend to be either large-brained and able to produce few offspring or small-brained and extremely fertile. In natural habitats, most birds brains are of average size...
Cooped Up at Home? Help Scientists Spot Penguins from Space or Seek Out Galaxies
Some citizen science projects can be done during quarantine
Tiny Wormlike Creature May Be Our Oldest Known Ancestor
The bilateral organism crawled on the seafloor, taking in organic matter at one end and dumping the remains out the other some 555 million years ago.
Blood Ties: Vampire Bats Build Trust to Become Food-Sharing Pals
New research examines how the animals begin close, blood-sharing partnerships
David Quammen: How Animal Infections Spill Over to Humans
In this 2012 interview, David Quammen talks about his book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, which is highly relevant to the emergence of the coronavirus that has changed our lives...
Is This Indonesian Cave Painting the Earliest Portrayal of a Mythical Story?
Archaeologists have dated figurative rock art from Sulawesi to at least 43,900 years ago
