Humans and other primates are outliers among mammals for having nails instead of claws. But how, when and why we transitioned from claws to nails has been an ev...
Imagine that Labradors and golden retrievers died out a million years ago, leaving only fossilized skeletons behind. Without the help of DNA, how could we determine that a fossil Labrador, a fossil retriever and a modern Chihuahua all belong to the s...
For hundreds of years, butterfly collecting has often inspired a special kind of fanaticism, spurring lengthy expeditions, sparking rivalries and prompting some...
An international team of scientists has mapped the evolutionary relationships between China’s 30,000 flowering plant species, uncovering a distinct regional pat...
Butterflies fly during the day while moths travel at night – or so you might think. In reality, their behavior is much more complicated.
A new Florida Museum of Natural History study offers the first comprehensive overview of the surprisingly comp...
Sea snakes are an evolutionary success story. With about 70 species, they’re the most diverse reptile group in the ocean, outnumbering sea turtle species 10-to-...
When trouble looms, the fish-scale geckos of Madagascar resort to what might seem like an extreme form of self-defense — tearing out of their own skin.
Their...
The mass extinction that obliterated three-fourths of life on Earth, including non-avian dinosaurs, set the stage for the swift rise of frogs, a new study shows.
In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...
The drill holes left in fossil shells by hunters such as snails and slugs show marine predators have grown steadily bigger and more powerful over time but stuck...
