How the Panda’s “Thumb” Evolved Twice
From Scientific American: The two species share a common ancestor that lived more than 40 million years ago. Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are distant relatives…
Evolution
Monkeys Make Stone “Tools” That Bear a Striking Resemblance to Early Human Artifacts
From Scientific American: The monkey is a wild capuchin in northeastern Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park, where these animals have long been known to…
Hanging with Scientists at the Bottom of the Grand Canyon
From Scientific American: Since 1981 the Oakland, Calif.–based NCSE has defended evolution education in public schools against constant threats from those who seek to remove…
Sorry David Attenborough, We Didn’t Evolve from ‘Aquatic Apes’—Here’s Why
From Scientific American: Occasionally in science there are theories that refuse to die despite the overwhelming evidence against them. The “aquatic ape hypothesis” is one…
The Story of Us: Humanity’s 7-Million-Year Journey
From Scientific American: The Rising Star find is only one in a rash of recent discoveries that has extended—and revised—the complex story of human evolution….
20 Big Questions about the Future of Humanity
From Scientific American: 2. When and where do you think we will find extraterrestrial life? “If there is abundant microbial life on Mars, I suspect…
Tiny Pterosaur Claims New Perch on Reptile Family Tree
From Scientific American: The finding is preliminary, but if it holds, it could upend scientists’ view of pterosaurs’ evolution, and their eventual extinction 66 million…
We May Have Found Earth’s Oldest Fossils
From Scientific American: In this week’s Nature, Australian and British researchers report finding layered structures called stromatolites in 3.7-billion-year-old rocks from Greenland. Stromatolites, which look a…
Like Humans, Chimps Reward Cooperation and Punish Freeloaders
From Scientific American: New research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that despite being prone to occasional violent behavior, chimps…
T. rex with Well-Preserved Skull Found in Montana’s Hell Creek Formation
From Scientific American: The T. rex was found by paleontologists from Burke Museum and the University of Washington (UW) in Montana’s famous dinosaur-fossil haven, the Hell Creek Formation. It has been dubbed the…
Feel the Burn—New World Chilies Traced Back Nearly 17 Million Years
From Scientific American: Found in cuisines worldwide, chilies and peppers—name them as you wish—all belong to the Capsicum genus, which is native to America. And…
Near-blind shark is world’s longest-lived vertebrate
From Scientific American: The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) has a lifespan of at least 272 years, and might live as long as 500 years. That…
How Did the Ancestors of Modern-Day Birds Survive?
From Scientific American: Derek Larson, assistant curator at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Alberta, and his colleagues first analyzed more than 3,000 fossilized…
Solving the Piltdown Man Scientific Fraud
From Scientific American: So who did it? Suspects have ranged from French priest and palaeontologist Teilhard de Chardin to writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but many archaeologists naturally…