Evolution

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.

We now know just how the earliest land plants, ancient algae, conquered terrestrial Earth hundreds of millions of years ago and laid the (literal) groundwork for all subsequent life. It highlights the fascinating genetic strategies of plant evolution.

Scientists have discovered that a once-in-a-billion-years evolutionary event is underway, as two lifeforms have merged into one organism that boasts abilities its peers would envy. Last time this happened, Earth got plants.

Fractals are a fascinating type of pattern for mathematics nerds, with their repeating, artificial-looking structures. Now, scientists have discovered the first known fractal protein – and it seems to be an evolutionary accident.

Venus may be a hellscape, but there’s a chance some forms of life could evolve there. A new MIT study has now found that the building blocks of life are surprisingly stable in highly concentrated sulfuric acid – which Venus’ clouds are made of.

Scientists have uncovered the oldest fossilized forest, dating back 390 million years. The ancient forest was made up of the first trees to ever grow on Earth – bizarre “prototype” trees that had to rip their skeletons apart in order to grow.