Until now, there was a conflict in the field of paleontology. Genetic analysis of how fast traits mutated and evolved ...

Fossils from China reveal complex animals existed before the Cambrian explosion, reshaping the timeline of early animal ...

Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. An artist’s impression depicts Kryoryctes at Dinosaur Cove in Australia. New research supports the hypothesis that Kryoryctes is a ...

The transition from water to land is a question that still intrigues scientists. Those ancient organisms would have needed to ...

Quick Take The discovery of the sea sponge order Vilesida and its unique sterols supports the hypothesis that animals may have originated 100 million years earlier than previously expected. Ancient ...

A remarkable assemblage of fossils from China is revealing that animal life diversified in Earth's primordial seas millions ...

Sponges may be ancient, but their timeline has been murky. New research suggests the earliest sponges were soft and skeleton-free, explaining why their fossils don’t appear until much later. By ...

The Cambrian Explosion in which life on Earth underwent massive diversification was likely triggered by eccentricities in Earth’s orbit around our Sun. Or so say the authors of a new paper just ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. The story of two of ...

(CNN) — The story of two of the strangest animals on the planet just got a little stranger, thanks to clues revealed by a lone fossil specimen that scientists now say represents a long-extinct ...