When the human genome was first discovered, it revealed some amazing genetic secrets – modern humans are way more complicated than we originally thought. During a long evolution , humankind picked up...
Scientists have made an amazing discovery about the humble anchovy. These small fish are usually found as a topping on a pizza. However, millions of years ago, they were saber-toothed predators who...
In evolutionary terms, islands are the stuff of weirdness. It is on islands where animals evolve in isolation, often for millions of years, with different food sources, competitors, predators, and...
Geologists have discovered the first ancestor on the family tree that contains most animals today, including humans. The ancient worm-like creature , Ikaria wariootia , is the earliest bilaterian, or...
By John Long & Richard Cloutier / The Conversation One of the most significant events in the history of life was when fish evolved into tetrapods , crawling out of the water and eventually...
Even a million and a half years ago, our ancestors understood that sometimes you need a simple hammerstone and other times a finely-made hand axe would better suit the task in front of you. New...
A new analysis of two 7.2 million-year-old fossils belonging to a hominin species nicknamed “El Graeco” from Mediterranean Europe, suggests that mankind emerged in Europe and not in Africa. The new...
Almost half a billion years ago Earth was largely inhabited by armored arthropods with segmented bodies and jointed limbs, shelled mollusks, and wobbly unrecognizable fishlike organisms darting about...
The fossils of a previously unknown titanosaur have been found in Ecuador. The medium to small-sized dinosaur lived 85 million years ago, during the Upper Cretaceous period. Its remains were...
By Chris Rogers / The Conversation Every now and again, scientists discover fossils that are so bizarre they defy classification, their body make-up is unlike any other living animals or plants...
They walked and perhaps played along the beach in a prehistoric world; we know this as archaeologists have discovered hundreds of Neanderthal footprints in France— with most of them left by children...
A Denisovan finger fossil is revealing secrets about this extinct Stone Age race. A decade ago, scientists excavating Denisova Cave , an ancient archaeological site in southern Siberia, discovered...
Before the famed Australopithecus afarensis Lucy roamed the land of Ethiopia some 3.18 million years ago, one of her progenitors, an Australopithecus anamensis, met its demise in what is now the...
By Renaud Joannes-Boyau , Ian Moffat , Justin W. Adams , and Luca Fiorenza / The Conversation Humans’ distant ancestor Australopithecus africanus had a unique approach to raising their young, as...
Meet the ancient bird that had toes longer than its lower legs. Researchers have discovered a bird foot from 99 million years ago preserved in amber that had a hyper-elongated third toe. The study,...
Experts in Crimea have found a fossil of a gigantic bird , that lived some 1.6 to 1.8 million years ago. The find demonstrates that giant birds once made their home in Europe and reveals for the...