The World’s Oldest Moss Outlived the Dinosaurs, but It May Not Survive Climate Change
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
These Salamanders Steal Genes and Can Have up to Five Extra Sets of Chromosomes
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.
Dolphins and Whales Will Never Evolve Back into Land Animals
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
Munching Bugs Gave the First Mammals an Edge
Early mammals got ahead by eating insects
These Predators Had a Face like an Axe and Will Haunt Your Nightmares
Terror birds were the grizzly bears of birds, the great white sharks of the land, Jack the Ripper but with feathers. They were also truly fascinating.
This Small-Brained Human Species May Have Buried Its Dead, Controlled Fire and Made Art
Extraordinary claims about the small-brained human relative Homo naledi challenge prevailing view of cognitive evolution
India Cuts Periodic Table and Evolution from School Textbooks
The periodic table, as well as evolution, won’t be taught to under-16s in India as they start the new school year
Why Do Animals Keep Evolving into Crabs?
Crablike bodies are so evolutionarily favorable that they’ve evolved at least five different times
The Closest Living Relative of the First Animal Has Finally Been Found
A debate has been settled over the earliest animal ancestor—a free-swimming creature with a well-developed nervous system
The Lifesaving Sled Dog Balto Had Genes unlike Those of Dog Breeds Today
The genome of the 1920s Siberian husky Balto suggests that greater genetic diversity and less inbreeding contribute to better health
How Zombifying Fungi Became Master Manipulators
The real-life fungi that inspired The Last of Us hijack the bodies of ants, wasps, cicadas, and more.
Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ‘Artificial Life’ Evolve, Too?
Do efforts to create life—by cooking up imitations in computers, robots and molecules—point toward a universal definition of biology?