“Remarkable and Puzzling” – A New Explanation for the Origins of Human Fatherhood
Dads emerged to reap the benefits of partnerships with females and other males, team of anthropologists and economists argue. Humans differ from other primates in…
Evolution News
“Global Diversity Curves Are Misleading” – Ocean Biodiversity Has Not Increased Substantially for Hundreds of Millions of Years
A new way of looking at marine evolution over the past 540 million years has shown that levels of biodiversity in our oceans have remained…
Genetic Analysis Shows Life’s Earliest Evolution Was More Complicated Than Previously Suspected
Biologists have long hoped to understand the nature of the earliest living organisms on Earth. If they could, they might then be able to say…
Paleontologists Reveal Jurassic Park in Eastern Morocco
The Kem Kem beds in Morocco are famous for the spectacular fossils found there, including at least four large-bodied non-avian theropods, several large-bodied pterosaurs, and…
Icelandic DNA Jigsaw-Puzzle Puts Together New Image of Neanderthals
An international team of researchers has put together a new image of Neanderthals based on the genes Neanderthals left in the DNA of modern humans…
Tyrannosaurs to Modern Crows: Evolutionary Tracing to Discover How Birds Evolved Big Brains
International team of researchers traces the history of brain evolution from tyrannosaurs to modern crows. An international team of evolutionary biologists and paleontologists have reconstructed…
Different Groups of Bats Have Their Own Unique Strains of Coronavirus – They Have Been Evolving Together for Millions of Years
Bats do a lot of good for the world — they pollinate plants, they eat disease-carrying insects, and they help disperse seeds that help with…
“Hiding in Plain Sight” – Origins of Human Language Pathway in the Brain at Least 25 Million Years Old
Scientists have discovered an earlier origin of the human language pathway in the brain, pushing back its evolutionary origin by at least 20 million years….
For Narwhals – The ‘Unicorns of the Sea’ – Size Matters for Sexual Selection
Showy peacock feathers, extravagant elk antlers, and powerful crayfish claws are just a few examples of the ostentatious animal extremes used to compete for and…
13,000-Year-Old Fossils Hint at Evolutionary Origins of Insects’ Structural Colors
Analysis of 13,000-year-old fossils suggests photonic nanostructures in insects, which create colorful iridescent colors, may have originated as a means of camouflage. Researchers from Yale-NUS…
Fossilized Monkey Teeth Discovered in Peru Indicate Ancient Primates Crossed the Atlantic Ocean From Africa
The discovery helps date the transatlantic migration to about 34 million years ago, around the time a major drop in sea level would have made…
Aquatic Jurassic Crocodiles Evolved, Enlarged to Avoid Freezing
Study pinpoints minimum survivable size of Jurassic crocodiles. Taking the evolutionary plunge into water and abandoning land for good, as some crocodilian ancestors did nearly…
Coquí Fossil Takes Title of Oldest Caribbean Frog – “Pride of Puerto Rico”
The bright chirp of the coquí frog, the national symbol of Puerto Rico, has likely resounded through Caribbean forests for at least 29 million years….
47 Million Years Ago, Horses Were About the Size of a Labrador Dog
Researchers open a window onto ancient mammal evolution using fossils from Germany. The former coalfield of Geiseltal in Saxony-Anhalt has yielded large numbers of exceptionally…
Modern Human Ancestry Cast in Doubt After Fossil Skull Discovery
Griffith University scientists have led an international team to date the skull of an early human found in Africa, potentially upending human evolution knowledge with…
New Twist to the Story of Human Ancestors From an Unusual Skullcap and Thousands of Clues
Our Direct Human Ancestor — Homo Erectus — Is Older Than We Thought An unusual skullcap and thousands of clues have created a southern twist…
Evolutionary Secrets of Fossil Brains Revealed: “Lucy” Had Ape-Like Brain, but Longer Childhood Like Humans
Australopithecus afarensis (‘Lucy’) had ape-like brain organization, but prolonged brain growth like humans Scientists have long been able to measure and analyze the fossil skulls…
Recent Human Ancestor Regularly Climbed Trees Like Apes
New research led by the University of Kent has found evidence that human ancestors as recent as two million years ago may have regularly climbed…