A spectacular fossil site in Canada contains 567-million-year-old creatures that may represent some of the earliest animals to move, reproduce sexually, and develop recognizable body plans. The ...

Being a scientist is much like being a lawyer. You painstakingly gather evidence to support an argument — though one rooted in the scientific method, not courtroom conjecture. According to new ...

Our new study reveals a different, often overlooked factor. Daily swings in oxygen levels on the shallow seafloor may have stressed early animals (the ancestors of all animal life today), pushing them ...

For more than 100 years, biologists have wondered why animals display different types of life cycles. Some species, like humans and most vertebrates, develop directly into a fully formed yet smaller ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Here's why Dickinsonia challenges our previously held ...

The newly discovered fossil records suggest that mold-like single-cell organisms "set the stage" for the animal kingdom to evolve, the researchers wrote in a new report, published in the journal ...

Around 540 million years ago, the biological landscape of Earth went through a huge transformation called the Cambrian ...

The transition from aquatic to terrestrial life has been one of the most significant evolutionary challenges. This decisive process in the evolution of life on Earth required a profound renewal of the ...

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) at the University of Oxford have uncovered a clue that may help to explain why the earliest evidence of complex ...