Evolutionary Biology

By studying the interactions of babies and their mothers, researchers determined that babies smile in hopes others will smile at them. Erika Beras reports

Homo naledi’s hands and feet could reveal answers about a key shift in human evolution—the move from a life of climbing trees to one spent walking on the ground

Hiding out in what is now New Mexico, beaver-like animal used specialized dentition to live on plants

The biologist Nancy Moran has spent a career investigating the surprising nature of symbiosis, a phenomenon in which two species can appear to merge into one

Entomologists, you know how to name your critters

Early human species may have had sharper hearing in certain frequencies than we enjoy, to facilitate short-range communication in an open environment. Cynthia Graber reports

Living on a small planet in a big universe exposes us to all manner of existential problems, but what are the worst, and what are the weirdest?

The identity of Earth's first flower has long vexed botanists. A new interpretation of an old fossil adds to the evidence that they may have come from the water.

Scientists are racing to solve the enduring mystery of how a large, dangerous carnivore evolved into a playful companion

The brown thornbill scares away its attacker by pretending an even bigger bird is nearby

A cat expert fields a host of questions from cat owners

Healthy ants wanted nothing to do with free-radical-rich foodstuff, but ants exposed to a pathogenic fungus sought it out, which upped their odds of survival. Christopher Intagliata reports