A fossil bed in China containing animals up to 554 million years old suggests that we may have to reconsider the idea that ...

(CNN) — The story of two of the strangest animals on the planet just got a little stranger, thanks to clues revealed by a lone fossil specimen that scientists now say represents a long-extinct ...

Until now, there was a conflict in the field of paleontology. Genetic analysis of how fast traits mutated and evolved suggested that humans and starfish had their earliest common ancestor in the ...

In most narratives, the story of evolution is the story of organisms emerging from the ocean and eventually populating the land. But for some species that evolution also involved a return trip. Dozens ...

Animal life began in aquatic environments more than 600 million years ago. Around 500 million years ago, during the Cambrian ...

To understand the origins of multicelled life, researchers are studying a motley assortment of simpler animal relatives. The commonalities they’re unearthing offer a trove of clues about our mutual ...

Scientists now believe consciousness is not exclusive to humans. Research suggests it evolved gradually in animals, allowing ...

When the environment changes dramatically, animals from mollusks to crows can make big changes in their behavior that enable them to survive. For example, marmots and ground squirrels in California ...

Embryonic germ layers are the fundamental organizing principle in animal development. They provide the structural basis from which tissues and organs arise. During early embryogenesis, cells divide to ...