Snakes lost their limbs millions of years ago to become undulating, scaly tubes of muscles. Scientists are finally figuring out why.
Articles on Evolution
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If a young person trusts the system to deliver a just outcome, their brain’s urgent need for retribution is dialled down.
Researchers were surprised to find how widespread this magnetic property was, not only across families of bees but also beetles, wasps and flies.
A handful of tiny fossil jaws fill a missing chapter in the evolutionary history of Australia’s most successful marsupial predators.
Tamarins and squirrel monkeys have babies with unspeakably large heads compared to their mother’s birth canal.
Unlike all other mammals, seals can hear both in the air and underwater. How do they do this?
Hummingbirds are responsible for some of the fastest evolution in the plant kingdom.
The Noronha skink arrived on the island millions of years ago from Africa, likely on floating masses of vegetation carried by ocean currents.
Your fingers’ lengths are just one feature of many that let your hands grasp, press, pull and otherwise interact with the world.
The 500 million year old shrimp-like Urokodia had pincer-like limbs emerging next to its eyes.
Understanding how female baboons benefit from social bonds helps humans understand their own origins.
Dune flies have 41 different dance moves. Changing even one of them is rarer than you’d think.
In 1866, the topic became so controversial that the Société de Linguistique de Paris banned discussions about language origins altogether.
The Arctic was not simply a cold edge of the Cretaceous world, but a place where mammals adapted, diversified, migrated and originated.
Palaeontologists have got a clearer picture of where turtles fit in the animal kingdom, thanks to analysis of a southern African fossil.
The fossil is a reminder of how incomplete our understanding of Earth’s history remains.
When people harness the logic of natural selection, they can often find efficient and effective ways to solve complex problems.
The female animals that go it alone.
The companies that drilled these cores decades ago couldn’t have known the scientific treasures inside.
When it comes to evolution, a few million years can really matter.
Top contributors
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Scientia Professor of Evolution, UNSW
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Emeritus Strategic Professor in Palaeontology, Flinders University
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Senior Research Scientist, South Australian Museum; Flinders University
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Honorary Associate Professor, UNSW
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Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath
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Senior Lecturer in Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences at the University of Bath, University of Bath
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Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Monash University
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Associate professor in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Principal Lecturer in Wildlife Conservation, Nottingham Trent University
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Research Associate in the College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University
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Jenny Graves is a Friend of The Conversation.
Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Vice Chancellor's Fellow, La Trobe University
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Adjunct Research Associate, Monash University
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Mark Elgar is a Friend of The Conversation.
Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology, The University of Melbourne
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Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University
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Professor of Earth System Science, UCL