Around 540 million years ago, the ocean erupted with complex life: Creatures rapidly transformed from simple, soft-bodied, ...

Hundreds of Chinese fossils from the dawn of animal evolution may change how scientists think of this critical period of ...

Scientists discovered a giant echidna fossil in Australia that shows these animals lived across a wider area during the Ice ...

A remarkable assemblage of fossils from China is revealing that animal life diversified in Earth’s primordial seas millions of years earlier than previously known, with an array of forms including ...

More than two decades after scientists identified a fossil as the world’s oldest octopus — officials now say it wasn’t one at ...

If you trace the animal family tree back through the fossil record, the trail usually goes cold about 539 million years ago.

A rare fossil discovery is shedding light on the “missing years” of early sponge evolution. Scientists found a ...

A previously misidentified Triassic cynodont has been confirmed as a new species, revealing a surviving lineage of early ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Arjan Mann with a 3D-printed replica of Tyrannoroter’s skull in the Carboniferous coal forest display at Chicago’s Field Museum.

Between 280 and 200 million years ago, a group of animals evolved which would eventually give rise to mammals, including ...

In 2000, researchers thought they found the oldest fossil octopus, which lived over 300 million years ago. But it may just be ...

A 550-million-year-old sea sponge fossil discovered in China is helping scientists resolve a 160-million-year gap in the ...