An illustration of a four-eyed myllokunmingid, a jawless fish that lived more than 500 million years ago Xiangtong Lei and Sihang Zhang Many spine-bearing creatures, or vertebrates, have a curious bit ...

Charles Darwin proposed that evolution is driven by gradual variations in organisms that have a survival advantage in a changing environment. But University of Maryland evolutionary biologist Karen ...

A large, crocodile-like animal that lived more than 340 million years ago was one of the earliest vertebrates to have a fast-growing phase in its youth.

Scientists discover missing evolution puzzle piece in 130-million-year-old rocks. The discovery is a result of an international collaboration, in which the Faculty of Sciences of the University of ...

New research from the University of St Andrews has discovered a crucial piece in the puzzle of how all animals with a spine—including all mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians—evolved. In a paper ...

Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins -- and produced a 'bizarre' evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage -- according to a new study that revises the ...

A new study warns that 15-23% of the Philippines’ 1,294 terrestrial vertebrates face extinction, with amphibians and mammals at highest risk. Endemic species are most vulnerable, yet many lesser-known ...

The most effective conservation strategies for protecting vertebrates on a global scale are those aimed at mitigating the effects of overexploitation, habitat loss and climate change, which are the ...

The island of Madagascar—one of the last large land masses colonized by humans—sits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) off the coast of East Africa. While it’s still regarded as a place of unique ...