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

Sponges are among Earth's most ancient animals, but exactly when they evolved has long puzzled scientists. Genetic ...

Sponges are among earth’s most ancient animals, but exactly when they evolved has long puzzled scientists. Genetic ...

In paleoanthropology, a rare, nearly-complete skeleton can rewrite entire chapters of the human origin story. The “Little Foot,” fossil an exquisitely preserved hominin found in South Africa’s ...

The oldest fossilized remains of complex animals appear suddenly in the fossil record, and as if from nowhere, in rocks that ...

The fossil record of baleen whales (Mysticeti) offers a window into one of the most dramatic evolutionary transitions among mammals. Early cetaceans evolved from terrestrial artiodactyl ancestors ...

The early part of the twentieth century saw evolutionary theory embattled by disagreements over Darwin's emphasis on natural selection. The then-newly rediscovered work of Gregor Mendel in the ...

Beginning with a recently discovered 47-million-year-old primate fossil, Switek effectively and eloquently demonstrates the exponential increase in fossils that have been found since Darwin first ...