Evolution

Many of us have had a tooth pulled in the dentist's chair, and even with anesthetic, it's not pleasant. So spare a thought for the people who, for millennia, chose to have good teeth yanked out with no painkillers – all in the name of beauty (mainly).

Ever been caught in the crossfire of a wet dog firing droplets of water away from their fur with a mad shake? Well, they can't help it. Scientists have identified the innate sense-motor function mechanism that drives dogs to twist and spout.

Despite observations of "wasps getting drunk" and "beetles consuming beer," it has been thought that alcohol in the non-human animal world hasn't been deliberate. Ecologists challenge this theory, saying it's far more commonplace and strategic.

Most of us do it, in one form or another, but how and when humans began to kiss is still hotly debated among researchers. Now, a new evolutionary theory has been put forward, which says the origins of the kiss may date back millions of years.

A surprise discovery in the Australian outback has delivered exciting insight into the origins of complex animal life. The animal fossil, dating back half a billion years, shows when bilateral symmetry emerged – a hallmark of most life on Earth now.

Scientists have found evidence that an isolated pocket of complex life evolved 2 billion years ago – only to go extinct and take another 1.5 billion years to return to that level. The controversial find could rewrite our understanding of life on Earth.

How do we separate the movie myths of Tyrannosaurus rex from the actual animal? The Victoria the T-rex exhibition sets the record straight with recent discoveries about what T-rex looked and sounded like, how it sensed the world, and how it hunted.

An amphibian has lived up to its name, swapping out its usual green coloring for bright blue, in the first-ever record of a magnificent tree frog with this appearance. It's stunned scientists, who know they're unlikely to see this again.

Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, another giant predator claimed the top spot in its environment. Meet Gaiasia, a huge salamander-like creature that stalked the Permian swamps.

In the 1800s, a conflict between the founding fathers of evolution divided the community. Charles Darwin said sexual selection drove male butterfly looks, while rival Alfred Russel Wallace believed it was just natural selection. Now we have an answer.

In a first, scientists have found that painted lady butterflies use favorable winds and a strategy of active flying and autopilot to cross the world nonstop. The flight, spanning five-to-eight days, takes up to half the adventurous animals' adult life.

The Earth’s magnetic field is vital for life – without it, the Sun’s radiation would sterilize the planet. But a new study suggests we wouldn’t be here at all if that magnetic field hadn’t almost completely collapsed half a billion years ago.