Evolution

Neanderthals have held our fascination ever since we first identified their remains.

Here's What We Know About Neanderthals So Far

Today, thanks to new artifacts and technologies, findings about our closest relatives are coming thick and fast

Fossilized Trisauropodiscus tracks from more than 210 million years ago (marked with 4 cm scale) compared to modern bird tracks from March 2018 (marked with 3 cm scale)

Mysterious Creatures With Bird-Like Feet Made These Tracks Long Before Birds Evolved

The footprints pre-date the earliest known fossils of avian ancestors by roughly 60 million years, per a new study

A group of chimpanzees at elevation listen for rivals.

While Some Chimps Go Low, Others Go High to Avoid a Dangerous Fight

Primate groups climb to elevation to scout out rivals and steer clear of clashes

Female chimps at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, in 2005. The new study followed 185 chimps in Uganda's Kibale National Park for 21 years.

Wild Female Chimpanzees Go Through Menopause, Study Finds

Until now, menopause had not been documented in wild, non-human animals, except for a few species of toothed whales

Can every living thing be traced to a single cell?

Can Every Living Thing Be Traced to a Single Cell? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

An illustration of the Homo erectus child with her mother in the Ethiopian highlands, two million years ago

Two Million Years Ago, This Homo Erectus Lived the High Life

Dating of a child's fossilized jaw and teeth suggest our relatives lived at altitude earlier than once thought

Mammal taxidermy under ultraviolet light: (a) polar bear, (b) southern marsupial mole, (c) greater bilby, (d) mountain zebra, (e) bare-nosed wombat, (f) six-banded armadillo, (g) orange leaf-nosed bat, (h) quenda, (i) leopard, (j) Asian palm civet.

More Mammals Can Glow in the Dark Than Previously Thought

A new study found that 125 different mammal species are fluorescent under ultraviolet light, suggesting the property is widespread

Artistic reconstruction of a group of hominins in direct competition for carrion with a hyena

One Million Years Ago, Our Human Relatives May Have Challenged Giant Hyenas for Carcasses

Groups of hominins might have successfully scavenged large kills, new modeling finds

Some birds—including blue jays—are strong vocal learners that can mimic other birds and make lots of different sounds.

Songbirds That Learn to Make New Sounds Are the Best Problem-Solvers

Birds—and humans—are vocal learners, meaning they can imitate new vocalizations and use them to communicate

The Gans' egg-eater swallows a quail egg far larger than its head.

How a Small Snake Can Eat Meals Many Times Larger Than Its Head

The egg-eating African reptile uses its stretchy jaw skin to swallow huge prey, a feat that not even a python can match

An X-ray microcomputed tomography scan of a male Eucera bee mummified inside a cocoon.

Paleontologists Discover Mummified Bees Preserved in Their Cocoons for 3,000 Years

Some kind of "catastrophic" event, such as a sudden freeze or flood, likely killed all the young adult bees at once, according to a new study

Hogfish can change their color in less than a second to blend in with their surroundings.

How Color-Changing Hogfish Use Their Skin to 'See' Themselves

Light-sensitive proteins in the fish's skin could play a role in monitoring how they camouflage, researchers theorize in a new study

Fork-tailed drongos have a signature color and pattern on their eggs, which helps them avoid getting duped by African cuckoos.

How These Birds Can Spot Look-Alike 'Imposter' Eggs in Their Nests

Fork-tailed drongos can identify and reject egg forgeries, laid by African cuckoos, with nearly 94 percent accuracy, new research suggests

Dolphins and humans both change how they communicate when they're around babies.

Dolphins Use Baby Talk When Their Calves Are Around

Like humans, female dolphins make higher-pitched vocalizations when communicating with their young

Scientists observed two separate groups of orangutans making biphonations, or two sounds at once.

Orangutans Can Beatbox, Just Like Humans

The primates can simultaneously make sounds with their mouth and throat, a finding that may shed light on the evolution of human speech

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner came across this hominin tibia in Kenya’s Nairobi National Museum. The magnified area shows cut marks.

Our Human Relatives Butchered and Ate Each Other 1.45 Million Years Ago

Telltale marks on a bone from an early human’s leg could be the earliest evidence of cannibalism

Engravings discovered in La Roche-Cotard cave

Oldest Known Neanderthal Engravings Were Sealed in a Cave for 57,000 Years

The art was created long before modern humans inhabited France's Loire Valley

The new research sequenced the genomes of more than 230 primate species, 58 percent of which are threatened with extinction.

What the Largest-Ever Study of Primate DNA Reveals About Ourselves

The findings cover not only conservation and primate evolution, but also human health and diseases

Masturbation may help reduce STIs and increase fertilization in male primates.

Male Primate Masturbation May Have Evolved to Prevent STIs

The behavior originated some 40 million years ago to improve breeding success and protect against pathogens, according to a new study

American crocodiles haven't been known to reproduce via parthenogenesis—until now.

Scientists Record the First 'Virgin Birth' in a Crocodile

A female American crocodile living in captivity reproduced without a mate—a finding that suggests dinosaurs might have done the same thing

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