The transition to multicellular life has long intrigued evolutionary biologists. The cells in our bodies have evolved to cooperate with exquisite precision. The human body has more than 200 types of cells, each dedicated to a different job.
The permanently frozen soil of Siberia, Canada and Alaska preserves the DNA of prehistoric plants, fungi and animals.
Can the presence or absence of a lemur-like grooming claw help determine where adapiforms -- early primates recently hailed as the "missing link" -- should be placed on humans' family tree? Researchers seeking to answer the question found that the extinct creatures' toe bones m …
Great apes survived in Europe for two million years longer than previously thought, study of a tooth has revealed. Scientists from Germany, Bulgaria and France say the hominid pre-molar, discovered near the Bulgarian town of Chirpan, is seven million years old. Up to now, i …
In the chemistry of the living world, a pair of nucleic acids -- DNA and RNA -- reign supreme. But this may not always have been so.
Scientists have uncovered a lot about the Earth's greatest extinction event that took place 250 million years ago when rapid climate change wiped out nearly all marine species and a majority of those on land.
Climate change -- even drastic climate change -- isn't new for the planet. But something else is: us.
The "extraordinary preservation" of a 33,000-year-old skull — found in a cave in southern Siberia — has helped show that dog domestication "was, in most cases, entirely natural" and not really a "human accomplishment," says evolutionary biologist Susan Crockford.
"Climate change has been a major player in our evolution," said Chris Stringer of London's Natural History Museum and author of The Origin of Our Species.
Dietary change led to the appearance of modern humans in the Middle East 400,000 years ago, say archeology researchers from Tel Aviv University.
Palaeontology has not initiated any private discussions.