11 October 2022
A fossil previously categorised as a hyena-like mammal is actually an early member of a group of sabre-toothed carnivores called nimravids. Its advanced features suggest these animals evolved rapidly
31 August 2022
The search for the direct ancestor of humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans has been protracted and puzzling. Now, fresh clues are adding a surprising twist to the tale
18 November 2020
The femur of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, generally regarded as the oldest known hominin, has finally been scientifically examined. The results suggest it walked on four legs, so may not actually be a close human relative at all
28 July 2020
The first mammals probably mostly ate insects, but bite marks on a bone fragment suggest they occasionally scavenged meat from giant dinosaur carcasses
25 March 2020
Finding out how flight evolved or animals moved onto land is all about a collision of palaeontology and genetics, argue two new books
30 April 2018
A plant fossil that lay unnoticed for a century is unexpectedly large for something so old, and it could upend our ideas about the evolution of land plants
23 April 2018
Earth’s air suddenly got a lot more oxygen around 1.6 billion years ago and that could have triggered the evolution of large multicellular organisms
23 April 2018
A pair of mass extinctions struck in quick succession just before the dinosaur era, and the birth of a mountain range in South Africa may have been partly to blame
