Today, Earth is home to animals of all shapes and sizes, from nearly microscopic creatures like tardigrades to 80-foot-long ...

Using fossil evidence and genetic dating, geneticists and paleontologists have backed strikingly different candidates for the world's first animal. When you purchase through links on our site, we ...

Using fossil evidence and genetic dating, geneticists and paleontologists have backed strikingly different candidates for the world's first animal.

Humans first evolved as a distinct species, Homo sapiens, around 300,000 years ago in Africa. In terms of biological time, we are a young species on this planet-- an unfinished animal, our evolution ...

Fossils offer a glimpse into Earth's ancient life, revealing the origins and evolution of complex organisms. Discoveries like ...

The first animal to appear on Earth was probably the humble sea sponge, American scientists believe. According to researchers at the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), sea ...

An artist's impression of Quaestio simpsonorum. The newly-discovered creature, which lived some 555 million years ago, was one of the first to move by itself, and have a different left and right side.

Across the vast expanse of Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-long history, life has taken many forms. With the first microbes likely appearing a good billion years following the planet’s initial ...

Related: What was the first animal on Earth? And dating viruses through changes in their genetic sequence isn't helpful, either, because viruses can mutate significantly faster than bacteria can.

Scientists on a research expedition in the Southern Ocean captured the first footage of a living Gonatus antarcticus squid. The colorful, three-foot squid species was only known to scientists ...