Scientific American: Evolution: Recent Episodes
Scientific American
Snakes saw a burst of adaptation about 128 million years ago that led to them exploding in diversity and evolving up to three times faster than lizards
A newly identified “chicken from hell” species suggests dinosaurs weren’t sliding toward extinction before the fateful asteroid hit
Scientists built a robotic dinosaur to terrify grasshoppers, all in hopes of understanding how truly pathetic wings could offer prehistoric animals an evolutionary advantage
Tracing the history of the earliest animals offers clues to whether the birth of the neuron was a one-time event
In 2023 we learned that cats really are choosing to ignore humans and that—despite dogs getting all the glory when it comes to retrieving prowess—cats want to play fetch, too
Some species of cave-dwelling spiders lack eyes but still maintain the ability to sense light, which likely protects them from the arid environments at the sunny mouths of caves
We’re looking back at 2023 for our favorite podcast shows and one about the largest bird to ever fly the skies just flew to the top of the list.
A newly described fossil is as old as the “first bird,” Archaeopteryx, and represents a birdlike dinosaur that might have specialized in running or wading instead of flying
A new technique for analyzing modern genetic data suggests that prehumans survived in a group of only 1,280 individuals
The world’s oldest moss has survived Earth’s shifting landscapes for more than 400 million years, but climate change is happening faster than it can adapt
The genus of uni-sexual salamanders appear to be the only creatures in the world that reproduce the way they do. Researchers know how, but the why is still being figured out.
Scientists have discovered that once mammals, such as dolphins or orcas, have become fully aquatic, they pass a threshold that makes a return to terrestrial landscapes almost impossible
Terror birds were the grizzly bears of birds, the great white sharks of the land, Jack the Ripper but with feathers. They were also truly fascinating.
Extraordinary claims about the small-brained human relative Homo naledi challenge prevailing view of cognitive evolution
The periodic table, as well as evolution, won’t be taught to under-16s in India as they start the new school year
Crablike bodies are so evolutionarily favorable that they’ve evolved at least five different times
A debate has been settled over the earliest animal ancestor—a free-swimming creature with a well-developed nervous system
The genome of the 1920s Siberian husky Balto suggests that greater genetic diversity and less inbreeding contribute to better health
The real-life fungi that inspired The Last of Us hijack the bodies of ants, wasps, cicadas, and more.
Do efforts to create life—by cooking up imitations in computers, robots and molecules—point toward a universal definition of biology?
An extensive system of air sacs, evolved over and over, let dinosaurs grow larger without sacrificing strength
The evolution of terrestrial plant roots could have kicked off large-scale extinctions by throwing the planet’s mineral cycle into disarray
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.
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
Mammal species that live in groups seems to live longer than those that lead solitary lives
To protect from deadly drought and make it on land, plants developed complicated inner plumbing
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
From reviving dead pig organs to measuring viruses in our poop, here are some of the most intriguing medical advances of the year
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
For most of human evolution, multiple species with different ways of walking upright coexisted
Animals with a backbone may have first emitted something akin to bleeps, grunts, crackles, toots and snorts more than 400 million years ago
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
Fish fossils from Western Australia preserve the oldest 3-D hearts, livers, stomachs and intestines in a jawed vertebrate
Small marine critters ferry around seaweed sex cells, the first recorded example of “pollination” in algae
Fossil animals’ inner ear structures offer clues on when endothermy, or warm-bloodedness, evolved
Global warming fueled rampant overgrowth of microbes at the end of the Permian period. Such lethal blooms may be on the rise again
Geologic evidence for a freezing arctic suggests dinosaurs could have weathered an epoch-ending volcanic winter
Were mitochondria a driving evolutionary force or just a late addition?
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Natural selection propels the giraffe family to absolute extremes—and it is not just about the absurdly long necks
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Researchers looked back at more than 100 years of research and found that a fascination with annelids with mixed up appendages was strong—and that research still has relevance...
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How to tell the different versions of SARS-CoV-2 apart, and how well vaccines protect against them
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An amazingly well-preserved fossil suggests the common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs also had some type of feather or feather precursor
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It’s not just physical combat—animals have a host of strategies for building clout
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To survive on nutrient-poor blood, less can sometimes be more
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Evolution in cities illuminates long-standing scientific questions and climate change futures
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A related lineage’s explosive growth leaves just one descendant today
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A well-preserved fossil introduces a new species that lived in what is now California around 42 million years ago
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Grandparents are a majority of the pandemic’s death toll
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Our much maligned cousins made sophisticated ornaments and probably had language
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The sea squirt relative demonstrates that sometimes less is more: losing genes can be adaptive
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Yet the unfit creatures survive, challenging our long-held view of evolution
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For billions of years Earth was quiet. Then life got loud
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Archaeological finds suggest that people developed numbers tens of thousands of years ago. Scholars are now exploring the first detailed hypotheses about this life-changing invention
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The synchronized dance of sulfur mollies is not only mesmerizing to watch but also confusing to predators
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A common solution is emerging in two different fields: developmental biology and neuroscience
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Habitat degradation, low genetic variation and declining fertility are setting Homo sapiens up for collapse
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The Miller-Urey experiment showed that the conditions of early Earth could be simulated in a glass flask. New research finds the flask itself played an underappreciated, though outsize, role.
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Fangs evolved over and over because of this groovy process
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It may force energy shifts to repair and maintenance, which could slow aging and make us more available to care for younger generations
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