Evolution

Author Annalee Newitz (Gawker Media's Gizmodo editor-in-chief) talks to us about Earth's 5 mass extinctions, as well as the possibility that we live in one right now.

The mass extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs is probably the most well-known, but it definitely isn't the worst.

By Karen Kirkpatrick

Hint: It wasn't because an enormous comet or asteroid struck Earth.

By Karen Kirkpatrick

When peering thousands of years into the future, there are certain things we can count on -- evolution, extinction, plate tectonics, climate change and, quite possibly, the eruption of a supervolcano. What else does the Earth's far future hold?

By William Harris

Let's assume that long ago Homo sapiens communicated by grunting at one another. How and when did all those grunting sounds evolve into a verb tenses, clauses and proper nouns?

By Charles W. Bryant

Imagine a time in Earth's far-flung past when organisms didn't swim through the oceans or populate the lands. Even the mighty dinosaurs hadn't arisen. Will the planet ever return to that lifeless state?

By Robert Lamb

When a basketball superstar makes a 3-pointer, the multimillion-dollar paychecks go into his or her bank account. But why don't his or her parents get the glory? After all, didn't they provide the DNA that allowed for such incredible success?

By Molly Edmonds

We don't admit to breaking up with someone because of his looks, or that we've read our boss's private e-mails. We answer "fine" when someone asks how we are, even if we're not fine at all. Why is polite society all about the big fib?

By Molly Edmonds

A mass extinction on Earth is long overdue, according to population ecologists. Find out what Earth's fossil record may be telling us about our future.

By Josh Clark

Batesian mimicry is an evolutionary strategy used by vulnerable species to look like a dangerous species so predators will leave them alone. But it only works under the right circumstances.

By Jesslyn Shields

Footprints unearthed at White Sands National Park in New Mexico were made some 23,000 years ago. That's much earlier than scientists have previously placed humans in the Americas.

By Matthew Robert Bennett & Sally Christine Reynolds

Scientists have determined that years of ivory poaching to fund Mozambique's civil war altered the genetics of the country's elephants. But it only affected the females. A new study tells why.

By Joanna Thompson

According to DNA research, we may all have a common ancestor, an African woman who lived thousands of years ago. How did scientists reach this conclusion? Is it even possible?

By Josh Clark & Desiree Bowie

Have you ever done something for someone else just because it was a nice thing to do? Do people perform unselfish acts because it feels good or is it just something society wants us to do?

By Josh Clark

Symbiosis is crucial to the survival of many species. In fact, you're a symbiote yourself.

By Ed Grabianowski

Whether they're big or small, extinctions change the world. And while extinctions themselves are all about change, the study of extinction is all about uncertainty. Anything that lives can become extinct, but how do scientists know when it happens?

By Tracy V. Wilson

When Australia became separated from the other continents, its species evolved in isolation. And yet, some of the Australian animals evolved in exactly the same way as the other animals in the world. How?

By Ed Grabianowski

Have you ever seen a baby with a tail? How about a whale with legs? Believe it or not, these things happen. They're called atavisms, and they might help us figure out evolution.

By Katie Lambert

You stub your toe, and it begins to throb almost immediately. You wince as the pain takes hold for a moment and you can't concentrate on anything else. But is some pain just in your head?

By Molly Edmonds

Variety is the spice of life. Absent the amazing diversity of organisms that calls Earth home, it would be a deadly boring place. How did we get to a point where Komodo dragons, giraffes and butterflies all compete for space on the same planet?

By Robert Lamb

Extinction can come in the form of an asteroid strike, a volcano eruption or even a nearby supernova. But sometimes devastation follows a chain of tiny, almost imperceptible changes. Who (or what) is behind what some scientists call the sixth mass extinction?

By Jessika Toothman

Maybe you've noticed that a lot of unrelated marine animals have a torpedo-like body -- a dolphin may not be related to a small fish, but the shape of both species gets each one through the water quickly. On the other hand, two similar species can evolve into entirely different species. So what's going on here: convergent or divergent evolution?

By Marianne Spoon

As the human population soars, our ability to feed all those hungry mouths can't keep pace. How did an English economist by the name of Thomas Malthus wind up thinking about this very issue in the 19th century, and what's his connection to Darwin?

By William Harris

Every species on Earth, from the majestic humpback whale to the bacteria happily living in your gut, has a special role to play within a defined ecosystem. Can organisms ever trade their existing niches for new ones?

By William Harris

The day our human ancestors figured out fire must have been a pretty exciting one. Through the years, we've changed in so many ways, from growing bigger brains to burying our dead. But how did we get from there to here?

By Elizabeth Sprouse