Evolution

If you’re a silphid beetle, a dead body is all your children really want, and it’s your job—no matter how difficult—to get one for them.

In addition to finding where citrus come from, researchers have pinpointed the genetic origins of the fruits’ tart taste

Cats have attained evolutionary perfection

A key genetic mutation—harmful in humans—may have opened the sky to bats

A jawbone from eastern China that displays both modern and archaic features could represent a new branch of the human family tree

A newly described fossil is as old as the “first bird,” Archaeopteryx, and represents a birdlike dinosaur that might have specialized in running or wading instead of flying

A new technique for analyzing modern genetic data suggests that prehumans survived in a group of only 1,280 individuals

Here’s how newfound “spicy” birds resist their potent neurotoxin

The world’s oldest moss has survived Earth’s shifting landscapes for more than 400 million years, but climate change is happening faster than it can adapt

Unisexual salamanders in the genus Ambystoma appear to be the only creatures in the world that reproduce the way they do. Researchers know how, but the why is still being figured out.

Scientists have discovered that once mammals, such as dolphins or orcas, have become fully aquatic, they pass a threshold that makes a return to terrestrial landscapes almost impossible

Early mammals got ahead by eating insects