Evolution

Evolution is a never-ending process, but some scientists believe it might be speeding up as human activity impacts the environment.

By Bambi Turner

We're used to taking the phrase "survival of the fittest" to mean it's an "every man for himself" world. But some animals (like worker bees) sacrifice themselves to ensure their species lives on. Why would they do this?

By Dave Roos

If dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct, you wouldn't exist. Extinction may seem inherently bad, but sometimes the death of a species encourages new life.

By Karen Kirkpatrick

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

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

Natural selection is the idea that organisms that are best suited to survive pass their traits down. Is it true that only the strong survive?

By Ed Grabianowski

Where did humanity begin, and how did we get to where we are now? Did we really all begin in Africa? What made us leave?

By Ed Grabianowski

Polar bears evolved to blend in with the terrain so they could hunt better. What causes one group of animals to split off from the rest of the species and develop new genetic traits?

By Josh Clark

We make a big deal about modern humans being smarter than Neanderthals, but, really, are we?

By Jesslyn Shields

The flightless Aldabra rail lives exclusively on the Aldabra Atoll in Madagascar. But it appears to have descended from birds that soar.

By Mark Mancini

In Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species, he referred to a number of “vestiges” in human anatomy that he posited are remnants left over from the course of our species’ development over time. Darwin suggested that these vestigial organs are evidence of evolution and represent functions that were once necessary for our survival, but […] The post 10 Physical Human Traits That Evolution Has Made Obsolete appeared first on Goliath.

By Wes Walcott

The newly developed family tree of Earth’s 2.3 million species is a first draft of the 3.5-billion-year history of evolution.

By Patrick J. Kiger

The more we research our closest extinct human ancestor, the more we realize how similar we were. But could we have shared a joke?

By Jesslyn Shields

New research shows that homo sapiens weren't the first folks to decorate their caves with artwork. Neanderthals actually did it thousands of years earlier.

By Alia Hoyt

Were hobbits and giants real? And are they distant relatives of humans?

By Diana Brown

You'd think being able to smell drinkable water would be an evolutionary advantage. But we can only smell things that suggest potable water. Why is that?

By Jesslyn Shields

Neanderthals may be long gone, but their genetic footprint lives on — in us.

By Robert Lamb

Humans can certainly claim some of these, but sloths, giraffes and pandas wanted a piece of the action, too. The hyena adaptation, however, may just blow your mind.

By Kate Kershner

Since Charles Darwin published the theory of evolution by means of natural selection, myths and misinterpretations have eroded public understanding of his ideas. Ready to take another look at one of the related questions that just won't die?

By William Harris & Sascha Bos

Organisms not related to each other can develop similar physical attributes without even exchanging notes.

By Jesslyn Shields

Do we owe the emergence of language and self-reflection to the ancient and sustained consumption of psilocybin mushrooms?

By Robert Lamb & Austin Henderson

The question of exactly what is human consciousness and how it came to be in the human mind has raged forever between philosophers, religious scholars and scientists, but does the theory of the bicameral mind explain it?

By Robert Lamb