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47 stories from Planck Standard. Latest: October 11, 2026.
Megacauda sungei, a semiaquatic relative of mammals from Inner Mongolia, carried bony palate hooks like those that support suckling and swallowing in living mammals.
A University of Vienna study in Nature Communications finds that ancient genome reshuffling pulled distant DNA together and created 'regulatory entanglement' around nervous-system genes.
A 137-scientist team combined genomes from 103 species with 44 fossils to redraw the bat family tree, overturning earlier theories of an African, Asian or North American origin.
New Zealand researchers tracked gene activity in both the insects and the Mermis worms inside them, finding a coordinated 'molecular dialogue' as the infection pushes earwigs toward a fatal plunge.
Hybrids made up 38% of a stickleback population in a tsunami-made pond in Otsuchi in 2012. By 2020 the foreign species' DNA had almost vanished, giving scientists a rare real-time look at how species boundaries hold.
Cornell and Beijing researchers found that BC200, a gene active in human neurons, is still a working 'jumping gene' that has leapt into the molluscum contagiosum poxvirus at least twice.
Forebrain and midbrain come from cells expressing Otx2; the hindbrain, which runs breathing and heartbeat, from cells expressing Gbx2. The finding, in Nature Neuroscience, explains why no one could grow human hindbrain neurons in a dish, and now they can, opening a path for ALS and spinal muscular atrophy research.
A team led by UNSW Sydney pulled a new Asgard archaeon out of Shark Bay stromatolites and imaged it physically joined to a bacterial partner, trading vitamins and hydrogen.
Researchers assembled 2,110 complete centromeres from 28 populations and found 1,870 variants nobody had catalogued. Some chromosomes are changing 20 times faster than others.
More than 100 specimens dated to 567 million years ago include six groups never before found in North America, and evidence that early animals moved, reproduced sexually and built recognizable body plans earlier than thought.
A genomic study of Scalesia plants shows evolution reaching an identical solution again and again by completely different routes, complicating a long-held assumption about repeatability.
A University of Michigan tool called Skelevision scanned 15,000 museum specimens and located a spike in body-shape change 35 million years ago, as the planet plunged into cooling.
A study in Current Biology argues vertebrates lost their paired eyes, kept one eye on top of the head, then rebuilt stereo vision out of it — and that the leftover of that ancient eye is still inside your skull.
Scientists say tiny insect-eating creatures from Queensland's Riversleigh fossil beds belong to an entirely new marsupial order, Keeunamorphia, that thrived for 35 million years before vanishing.
A computer analysis of sauropod thigh bones shows young Uberabatitan and Neuquensaurus could stand on their hind legs with surprisingly little strain.
In a Spanish study, chimpanzees singled out clear crystals from ordinary stones and inspected them with rapt curiosity — a behavior researchers say may illuminate why our own species has gathered gems for hundreds of thousands of years.
A rare goose unearthed from an ancient lakebed in Central Otago suggests the country's colossal 18-kilogram geese descended from far more recent arrivals than scientists long assumed.
Indian researchers found 32 color patterns in a single new species, Theridion himalayana, whose grinning markings evolved entirely separately from its celebrated Pacific look-alike.
The University of Minnesota's 'SpudCell,' assembled entirely from non-living chemical parts, completes a full life cycle — a milestone biologists have chased for decades.
A study of chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans and people found that all of them giggle with the same underlying rhythm, hinting at the deep roots of human speech.
Researchers found the anemone uses a protein that suppresses — rather than switches on — its immune response, yet still defeats viruses, upending assumptions about how immunity evolved.
Fossils sealed between two volcanic ash layers near Waitomo preserve 12 bird species and four frog species, including an ancient relative of the flightless kakapo that may once have flown.
Heliconius butterflies live up to three times longer than their close relatives — and one species shows almost no physical decline with age, a new Nature Communications study reports.
Scientists assembled the first complete evolutionary history of every living millipede order, tracing the leggy creatures back roughly 460 million years — long before any vertebrate crawled ashore.
A study finds that a sliver of the genome making up less than a tenth of a percent of our DNA predicts language ability better than the other 99.9% combined.
Newly identified species prowled Ethiopian rivers 3 million years ago when Lucy's species walked the Earth.
A University of Michigan study finds beneficial mutations are surprisingly common, then explains why they almost never take over — a one-two punch that reframes the famous Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution.
Stone tools and ancient plant traces from a now-destroyed site in Côte d'Ivoire push back the oldest known rainforest habitation by more than double — and undercut the idea that our species was born only on the savanna.
Great apes organize friendships into inner circles and broader networks, with chimpanzees becoming more selective with age while bonobos maintain egalitarian relationships.
Wrens on St Kilda and Shetland have grown to nearly twice the size of their mainland cousins. University of Birmingham researchers say their distinct genes and songs suggest they are quietly evolving apart.
Scientists discover the extinct island reptiles were saltwater crocodiles that drifted thousands of kilometers across the Indian Ocean before being wiped out by settlers.
Advanced neutron imaging of Koharalepis jarviki fossil uncovers brain features and air-gulping adaptations that helped ancient fish transition from water to land.
A comparative analysis of 2,025 individuals from 41 primate species, published in PLOS Biology, shows that bipedal proportions and relative brain size together fully account for humans' unique species-wide hand preference.
Paleontologists in Teruel province have recovered the most complete Dacentrurus armatus skull ever found in Europe and proposed an entirely new evolutionary group, Neostegosauria, to make sense of where the plated dinosaur fits on the family tree.
New research overturns Darwin-era assumptions, revealing that flower evolution speed, not pollinator specialization, drives cactus species formation.
A microscopic pond organism from Oxford University Parks rewrites how genes signal their end, challenging fundamental assumptions about genetic translation.
A routine experiment with single-cell DNA sequencing revealed a microscopic pond organism that rewrites how genes signal their end, challenging fundamental assumptions about genetic translation.
Trees shift leaf emergence by just three days after heavy insect attacks, cutting caterpillar damage by over half in surprisingly effective defense.
Tanyka amnicola, discovered in Brazilian riverbed, was a 'living fossil' even in its own time with unique sideways-pointing teeth for grinding plants.
New research overturns decades-old theory about massive ancient dragonflies, showing oxygen alone can't explain their enormous size.
The Ayeyarwady pit viper seems to blur species definitions by looking like multiple different snakes at once, challenging traditional classification methods.
Fossil findings in China reveal complex creatures existed millions of years before the famous Cambrian explosion, rewriting the timeline of animal evolution.
Megachelicerax cousteaui, an 8-centimeter Cambrian arthropod from Utah described by Harvard researchers in Nature, pushes chelicerate origins back 20 million years and confirms molecular clock predictions about when arachnid ancestors first appeared.
A UT Austin study of 13,000 microbial genomes reveals that Asgard archaea — our most ancient ancestors — can metabolize oxygen, resolving the mystery of how two incompatible life forms merged to create eukaryotes.
A UT Austin study using helium-3 to refine ancient sediment timelines reveals that biological recovery from the Chicxulub impact was orders of magnitude faster than previously estimated.
Snow flies use antifreeze proteins and mammal-like heat generation to stay active at temperatures that would freeze most insects.
23-million-year-old rhinoceros found in Canadian High Arctic reveals rhinos lived farther north than ever known and crossed continents later than expected.