EVOLUTION

6 Traits Humans Inherited From Fish

What’s so fishy about human anatomy? A lot! Just look at these gifts from our aquatic ancestors.

A History of the Pigeon

One hundred and seventy-five years ago, Charles Darwin set out with a survey voyage, aboard the HMS Beagle, in what would be a groundbreaking expedition for his own theories, and the way the world would come to see the origin of species. Darwin brought th

Why Are Eggs Egg-Shaped?

There’s only one thing in this world shaped like an egg. Not exactly spherical, not exactly an oval, it’s kind of hard to describe what an egg looks like. “Asymmetric tapered oval”? Sure, why not.

Signature Song keeps Fairy-Wren Moms from Being Fooled

Talk about "singing for your supper": New research shows that fairy-wren chicks have to sing a specific song to their mother or she will refuse to feed them.

6 Surprising Examples of Human Vestigiality

People have speculated over the nature of seemingly useless physical characteristics in living things for thousands of years.

Why Don’t Big Dogs Live as Long as Small Dogs?

Large animals tend to live longer than smaller ones. But this isn't the case for most breeds of dog. What gives?

8 Prehistoric Saber-Toothed Animals

The first Ice Age movie hit theaters in 2002—and with it came the cinematic debut of “Scrat," an accident-prone saber-toothed squirrel with an insatiable lust for acorns (as of this writing, the manic critter’s Facebook page has netted more than 12,000 “l

Painting Frogs, Licking Wounds & Other Adventures with Poisonous Animals

There are plenty of intrepid scientists doing strange-sounding field work. Here are two.