Vertebrate evolution kicked off in lagoons
First animals with backbones traced to shallow “hot-spots”.
Scientists have discovered that shallow, lagoon-like environments were the cradle for vertebrate evolution, giving ri...
early life
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Is this the oldest animal on Earth?
Fossil pushes back emergence of animals by millions of years.
The earliest known animal to exist on Earth did so 558 million years ago – millions of years earlier than thought.A...
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Claim for early humans in Madagascar disputed
Humans reached island earlier than thought.
The butchered remains of extinct elephant birds could push back the date of human habitation of Madagascar by 6000 ye...
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Life sprang on Earth before the asteroids stopped
The date for emergence pushes back to 4.5 billion years ago.
For decades, researchers have bickered about claims to have found the oldest life on Earth – but a new analysis seems...
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Boning up on early skeletons
X-ray analysis resolves a mystery about the origin of bone.
Palaeontologists have identified the oldest known form of bone, solving a 160-year-old mystery about the evolution of...
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Early hominid tot had ape-like feet
Australopithecus was bipedal from birth?
The long-standing theory that Australopithecus afarensis, one of humanity’s earliest hominid ancestors, was exclusive...
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Fossil named after Bowie raises many questions
Ancient South American mammal co-existed with dinosaurs.
The late British artist David Bowie has been feted for his vast catalogue of musical achievements, but now he has bee...
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The earliest footprints ever found
Tiny tracks push back emergence of bilateral movement.
About 550 million years ago, creatures walked across a sea bed and left their imprints.These footprints, discovered...
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Ancient crayon lets archaeologists draw conclusions
Discovery shows importance of ochre to early British society.
British archaeologists have uncovered a 10,000-year-old crayon that provides a tantalising glimpse into the lives of ...
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How snowball Earth gave rise to complex life
650 million years ago, massive glaciers ground mountains to dust set the stage for the rise of al...
A pivotal step in the evolution of life on Earth was the progression from unicellular to multicellular organisms. Thi...
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Evidence of ancient life in hot springs
Fossils may change our ideas about life on Mars.
Fossil evidence of early life has been found in old hot spring deposits in the Pilbara, Western Australia, that date ...
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Top archaeology stories of 2016
Best stories about our extended family tree.
Human evolution is always fascinating so we've gone back through the year to find some of the best stories that revea...