Evolutionary Biology

Animals can be deceived, but do animals feel wonderment, awe, or sense that they have experienced the impossible?

The apes' genes explain their flexibility—and why their chromosomes are so peculiar

The Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) is the rarest fish in the world. Found only in a single, tiny limestone cavern in the Devils Hole geothermal pool about 100 km east of Nevada’s Death Valley National Park, these fish have the smallest known geographic range of any vertebrate in the wild.

It’s not every day a new animal is discovered that could shake up the roots of animal taxonomy and simultaneously form its own new phylum, the top classification in the Animal Kingdom, but today is such a day.

One of the longest-running, most fervent debates in the history of human evolution research concerns the cognitive abilities of the Neandertals.

Researchers from the Netherlands have made available online a digitized catalogue of more than 10 hours’ worth of chimpanzee calls. Karen Hopkin reports

There are ways that chimpanzees are more intelligent than us

Genome comparisons reveal the DNA that distinguishes Homo sapiens from its kin

The latest molecular analyses and fossil finds suggest that the story of human evolution is far more complex—and more interesting—than anyone imagined

New ideas about human evolution reveal just how unique Homo sapiens are

Swings between wet and dry landscapes pushed some of our ancestors toward modern traits—and killed off others

We asked scientists for their views on the evolution of our species