Learn how increased protein diversity in signaling genes may have helped drive the shift from invertebrates to vertebrates, ...

Scientists have uncovered an unexpected genetic shift that may explain how animals with backbones first emerged and became so diverse.

A 400-million-year-old jawed fish fossil found in the Arctic, Romundina gagnieri, could be a key link in the evolution of ...

New research from the University of St Andrews has discovered a crucial piece in the puzzle of how all animals with a ...

Scientists analyzing 443-million-year-old Scottish fossils have uncovered the early evidence that some of the first groups of vertebrates possessed surprisingly advanced eyes and traces of bone, ...

The study of early vertebrates provides an essential window into the evolutionary processes that shaped modern biodiversity. Fossil discoveries spanning the Silurian to Devonian periods reveal a ...

A fish thought to be evolution’s time capsule just surprised scientists. A detailed dissection of the coelacanth — a 400-million-year-old species often called a “living fossil” — revealed that key ...

About 445 million years ago, Earth’s oceans turned into a danger zone. Glaciers spread across the supercontinent Gondwana, and shallow seas shrank fast.

Vertebrate morphology exhibits remarkable diversity, reflecting a complex interplay of developmental processes, genetic regulation and environmental pressures. This variation arises from a combination ...

New fossil evidence from China suggests that some of our vertebrate ancestors had four eyes. The study, published in Nature, takes a closer look at a structure found in multiple 518 million-year-old ...

Researchers have traced cell origins critical to vertebrate evolution by studying a group of primitive, bloodsucking fish called lampreys. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

Bucknell University Professor Jeffrey Trop, geology & environmental geosciences, is one of the recipients of a National Science Foundation (NSF) $148,000 collaborative grant supporting research that ...