Oxygen played a key role in the evolution of complex organisms, according to new research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The study shows that the complexity of life forms increased earlier ...

Life’s leap from single-celled to multicellular organisms marks a pivotal moment in evolutionary history. This transformation laid the foundation for the complex life forms we see today. By studying ...

Life has found a home on Earth for around 4 billion years. That's a significant fraction of the universe's 13.77 billion-year history. Presumably, if life arose here, it could have appeared anywhere.

Evolution doesn’t always move inextricably forward, instead sometimes taking the occasional detour or even getting stuck in never-ending circles. In Madison, Wisconsin’s Lake Mendota, bacteria evolves ...

Discover interesting facts about how evolution works, the different patterns that can emerge from evolution, how quickly organisms can evolve, and whether evolution is a random or ordered process When ...

A new synthetic lifeform, often referred to as “mirror life,” has recently emerged as a potential risk to humankind. With its inherent capacity for rapid evolution and adaptation, this life form could ...

For decades, many scientists have relied on the "hard steps" model to suggest that intelligent life is rare — the improbable result of a series of unlikely evolutionary leaps. But new research by ...

The evolution of humans on Earth may not be entirely exceptional. That is because intelligent life is likely to form if certain planetary conditions are met, a new study suggests. This idea displaces ...

It seems pretty possible that life could arise in an environment where it would remain at the level of bacteria. They can survive almost anywhere, as they do in extreme environments on Earth, and ...

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Imagine a photograph of your great-grandparents, grandparents and parents ...