Life on Earth began in a way that still boggles the mind. Around 4.5 billion years ago, a chemical process called abiogenesis ...

Human newborns arrive remarkably underdeveloped. The reason lies in a deep evolutionary trade-off between big brains, bipedalism and the limits of motherhood.

Like other living creatures, humans have been shaped by evolution. Over time, we have developed – and continue to develop – traits that help us survive.

One of the defining features of human evolution is the steady expansion of our brains. New findings suggest this growth may be partly linked to higher levels of estrogen before birth. Surprisingly, a ...

Researchers have identified a "tipping point" about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold and chaotic, as continental ice sheets ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A reconstruction of the crushed skull labelled Yunxian 2, which has features that are closer to species thought to have existed ...

Learn how repeated burn injuries may have acted as a form of natural selection, influencing human genes linked to healing and immune response.

Humans' exposure to high temperature burn injuries may have played an important role in our evolutionary development, shaping ...

A new analysis argues that this daily work of processing and cooking food helped reshape human bodies and social life. It explores how fire, tools, and cooperation driven by women changed humans’ ...

If we look across the whole of the mammal branch of the tree of life, we find there are many groups of mammals that have ...