Today, few critters are as abundant as cicadas. Thousands of different cicada species are found throughout the world, and some even periodically emerge by the trillions. But the prehistoric world was not crawling with periodical swarms. The cicadas of the late Jurassic Period — which had bulkier bodies than today’s …
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The sea robin has fascinated scientists for decades. It has the body of a fish, the wings of a bird and the legs of a crab. “Legs on a fish sound like, um, well, that’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen,” said David Kingsley, a developmental biologist at …
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The human brain, more than any other attribute, sets our species apart. Over the past seven million years or so, it has grown in size and complexity, enabling us to use language, make plans for the future and coordinate with one another at a scale never seen before in the …
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Rain may have been an essential ingredient for the origin of life, according to a study published on Wednesday. Life today exists as cells, which are sacs packed with DNA, RNA, proteins and other molecules. But when life arose roughly four billion years ago, cells were far simpler. Some scientists …
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