The missing link in the mystery turned out to be an event called the Cambrian explosion. It was only after it that living ...

While late M-stars are the easiest places to find Earth-sized planets, a new study suggests they are biological dead ends where animal life may never find enough fuel to evolve.

Research reveals when and why ancient tropical seas transitioned from oxygen oases to marine dead zones, providing clues to ...

In Earth's fossil record, soft-bodied organisms like jellyfish rarely stand the test of time. What's more, it's hard for any ...

Dinosaurs ruled the planet between 230 to 66 million years ago, although many other life forms had evolved well before their ...

Rare fossils found along the Colorado River 'give us a fuller picture of what life was like during the Cambrian period,' says ...

Scientists refine the timeline of sponge origins, showing soft-bodied ancestors likely evolved later than some chemical ...

For decades, scientists have puzzled over a significant gap in the fossil record of Earth's earliest animals, with genetic ...

The origins of consciousness date back about 540 million years ago, when animal bodies became more complex. Feelings like pleasure and pain act as a "common currency" for decision-making, as we see in ...

After studying rocks more than 541 million years old, MIT scientists have found new evidence that some of Earth’s first ...

Charles Darwin worried that the fossil record looked strangely abrupt, with complex animals appearing in a geological instant ...

Exceptionally preserved fossils from the Ediacaran period challenge what scientists thought was possible in sandstone. In the fossil record, creatures without hard shells or skeletons, such as ...