Prehistoric animals are often pictured as distant fossils, yet a surprising number of species still walk, swim, and crawl ...

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 ...

An artist’s impression depicts Kryoryctes at Dinosaur Cove in Australia. New research supports the hypothesis that Kryoryctes is a common ancestor of both the platypus and echidna. - Peter Schouten ...

A team of scientists digging up some of the Earth’s oldest rocks has uncovered new chemical evidence that Earth’s first animals were likely ancestors of the modern sea sponge. The discovery relies on ...

Scientists at MIT have found compelling chemical evidence that Earth’s earliest animals were likely ancient sea sponges.

Our planet is brimming with life, and the diversity of animal species on Earth is staggering. Over 2.1 million animal species have been described, but zoologists estimate that millions more have yet ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. When we think about the scope of our world’s diversity, ...

A new analysis of more than 70,000 wild animal species reveals that climate change now threatens thousands of to the planet’s wildlife, along with overexploitation and habitat degradation. The study ...

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 ...