Animals
The Lifesaving Sled Dog Balto Had Genes unlike Those of Dog Breeds Today
The genome of the 1920s Siberian husky Balto suggests that greater genetic diversity and less inbreeding contribute to better health
Evolution11811 articles archived since 1845
Evolution
How Zombifying Fungi Became Master Manipulators
The real-life fungi that inspired The Last of Us hijack the bodies of ants, wasps, cicadas, and more.
Extraterrestrial Life
Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ‘Artificial Life’ Evolve, Too?
Do efforts to create life—by cooking up imitations in computers, robots and molecules—point toward a universal definition of biology?
Paleontology
Dinosaurs' Air Sacs Evolved Many Times and Let Them Take Over the World
An extensive system of air sacs, evolved over and over, let dinosaurs grow larger without sacrificing strength
Evolution
Tree Roots May Have Set Off a Mass Extinction
The evolution of terrestrial plant roots could have kicked off large-scale extinctions by throwing the planet’s mineral cycle into disarray
Evolution
Inside the Scientific Quest to Save (Most of) the World’s Parasites
Scientists are on a mission to save parasites—not to kill them. Climate change is already doing an increasingly good job at the latter, and that could be a big problem for the world...
Evolution
Evolution Turns These Knobs to Make a Hummingbird Hyperquick and a Cavefish Sluggishly Slow
By tuning the enzymes that control the breakdown or storage of sugars, hummingbirds and cavefish adapt their metabolism to meet the demands of the vastly different environments in which they live...
Animals
Mammals That Live Together Live Longer
Mammal species that live in groups seems to live longer than those that lead solitary lives
Evolution
How Plants’ Plumbing Let Them Conquer the World
To protect from deadly drought and make it on land, plants developed complicated inner plumbing
Epidemiology
Why COVID’s XBB.1.5 ‘Kraken’ Variant Is So Contagious
A new variant of the virus that causes COVID has mutations that make it more transmissible, but vaccines are still likely to protect against severe disease
Vaccines
The Biggest Health and Biology Breakthroughs of 2022
From reviving dead pig organs to measuring viruses in our poop, here are some of the most intriguing medical advances of the year
Evolution
Ancient Sawfish Help to Illuminate Our Teeth’s Scaly Origins
Weird new evidence on tooth evolution tips the scales even more toward scales
Evolution
Chances of Finding COVID-Causing Virus Ancestor ‘Almost Nil,’ Virologists Say
A genome analysis finds SARS-CoV-2 and bat coronaviruses shared an ancestor just a few years ago, but extensive recombination has muddied the picture
Evolution
Geologic Activity Lets Microbes Mingle Deep Underground
Tiny subterranean cracks can upend aquifer microbes’ ecology
Evolution
Fossils Upend Conventional Wisdom about Evolution of Human Bipedalism
For most of human evolution, multiple species with different ways of walking upright coexisted
Evolution
Vertebrates May Have Used Vocal Communication More Than 100 Million Years Earlier Than We Thought
Animals with a backbone may have first emitted something akin to bleeps, grunts, crackles, toots and snorts more than 400 million years ago
Evolution
Penis Worm’s Ancient Cousin Fossilized with Its Doughnut-Shaped Brain Intact
The fossilized embryo of a Cambrian worm holds the preserved remains of a tiny brain
Anthropology
Discoveries about Ancient Human Evolution Win 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Svante Pääbo’s work on sequencing the DNA of Neandertals and Denisovans, which won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, revealed surprising interbreeding among human species...
Paleontology
The Oldest 3-D Heart from Our Vertebrate Ancestors Has Been Discovered
Fish fossils from Western Australia preserve the oldest 3-D hearts, livers, stomachs and intestines in a jawed vertebrate
Dinosaurs
If T. Rex’s Beady-Eyed Glare Terrifies You, It Should
Top-predator dinosaurs of the Cretaceous may have traded big eyes for a bigger bite
