In ancient Egypt, animals were not kept at a distance from daily life. People lived with them, named them, and included them ...

Quick Take The discovery of the sea sponge order Vilesida and its unique sterols supports the hypothesis that animals may have originated 100 million years earlier than previously expected. Ancient ...

MIT geochemists offer compelling evidence that ancient sea sponges were Earth's first animals, emerging over 541 million years ago. By analysing chemical fossils in rocks, researchers identified ...

A groundbreaking new study from Bar-Ilan University shows that one of sleep's core functions originated hundreds of millions of years ago in jellyfish and sea anemones, among the earliest creatures ...

Imagine creatures so old that their forebears roamed Earth when dinosaurs walked the planet. These incredible animals have defied the odds, surviving massive climate changes, shifting continents, and ...

The oldest fossilised remains of complex animals appear suddenly in the fossil record, and as if from nowhere, in rocks that are 538 million years old. The rapid arrival of animals so different to ...

Learn more about the hidden molecules uncovered in animal fossils from an ancient human site, and the new view they give us of that ancient world. Fossils have provided scientists with incredible ...

Some 390 million years ago in the ancient ocean, marine animals began colonizing depths previously uninhabited. New research indicates this underwater migration occurred in response to a permanent ...