Evolution

Dinosaurs may be long extinct, but 2025 made it clear that they’re anything but settled science. New fossils, reanalyses of famous specimens and increasingly sophisticated tools have helped us learn more about how they lived, moved, fed and evolved.

Step aside, Van Gogh. New research shows that several orb-weaving species create giant web-mounted “doppelgängers” convincing enough to confuse potential predators. It’s a clever form of deception that nudges the line between instinct and ingenuity.

The culprit behind the mysterious disappearance of one of the most advanced urban civilizations at the time, contemporaries to Mesopotamians and Egyptians, has finally been identified: a series of severe droughts that dried rivers 4,000 years ago.

New research is adding to the body of evidence showing Neanderthals indulged in expressing abstract behavior, this time with archaeologists finding evidence of pencil-like crayons that were likely used to make symbolic art.

Most pet dogs carry a little wolf inside them; tiny snippets of wolf DNA that slipped into dog genomes after domestication. Now a new study has found almost two-thirds of dog breeds have a small amount of wolf genes, including some breeds you wouldn't expect.

Bears look like textbook mammals, but hidden in their evolutionary history are two dramatic departures from the rules of growth and adaptation. Scientists have now unlocked when, and how, ancient bears broke the rules and hacked nature out of need.

Using advanced chemistry and AI, a team of Carnegie researchers uncovered new chemical traces of Earth's earliest life in 3.3‑billion‑year‑old rocks, and evidence that oxygen‑producing photosynthesis began over 800 million years earlier than thought.

As our evolution slows and industrialization and technology accelerates, research suggests that human biology is struggling to keep pace. A new study investigated whether rapid and extensive environmental shifts have compromised the fitness of Homo sapiens.

Deep underground in a dark, sulfuric cave, scientists have made an incredible discovery – a giant communal spider web spanning more than 1,000 square feet, home to an estimated 110,000 spiders that defy nature to coexist in harmony.

Lead poisoning isn’t just an industrial-age problem. A new study reveals our ancestors, including Neanderthals, were exposed to lead for millions of years, shaping how their brains evolved and overturning what scientists thought about our toxic history.

A chance discovery in a US cheese cave has given scientists a rare glimpse of evolution in real time – and the surprise findings have huge potential for protecting human health, enhancing food security and even delivering new flavors to turophiles.

A skull found on a UK beach has rewritten the history of lizards, snakes and the tuatara, the last survivor of an ancient lineage found only in New Zealand today. The new species dates back 242 million years, making it the earliest known lepidosaur.