New research suggests that no matter what we eventually determine the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees to be, we'll learn it was a primate that climbed trees.
Evolution
Aug 17, 2026
0
159
South America was a frightening place during the Miocene. More than 10 million years ago, a vast lake covered much of the continent, home to giant turtles and crocodylians.
Ecology
Aug 16, 2026
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513
How many sharks should a coral reef have? It sounds like a simple question, but almost nowhere on Earth is there a reef that has not at some time been fished or otherwise affected by humans, so there is no yardstick against ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2026
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91
If you want to know how rapidly pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will affect future forest ecosystems, you have to look into the distant past. The researchers behind a new study published in Science have done just ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2026
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554
An international team of researchers from Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain and the U.S. has reconstructed the evolution of body mass in carnivorous mammals during the Paleogene—a crucial window in the diversification of ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2026
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39
The first bird to inhabit Earth used its robust hind legs to make two or three powerful leaps while flapping its way to flight, according to a study by the University of Southampton published in Developmental Biology.
Evolution
Aug 12, 2026
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170
The Mauritian dodo—a global symbol of human-caused extinction and one of the world's largest pigeons—may not have deserved its reputation as a silly simpleton and may have been the only member of its group to live in the ...
Ecology
Aug 8, 2026
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44
A new study led by a Duke University scientist overturns a long-held idea about how primates, including humans, came to have such large and sophisticated brains. The research finds that the dramatic expansion of the primate ...
Evolution
Aug 6, 2026
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356
Only two complete dodo skulls are known to exist anywhere in the world: one at the Natural History Museum Denmark and one at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The specimen housed in Copenhagen has been preserved ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 5, 2026
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66
A rare fossil discovered near South America's largest known meteorite crater has been named a new species. Initially mistaken for a frog by locals, Leolepis matogrossensis is actually a species of ancient ray-finned fish—the ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 5, 2026
0
52
