evolution

  1. Kristin Cimmerer of University of Toronto, Mississauga, and Kyra Pazan of California State University, Stanislaus, excavate Likonong Rock Shelter in the mountains of Lesotho. Here, an international team of archaeologists from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Lesotho have identified the earliest sustained human occupation in Highland Southern Africa. Image credit: Kyra Pazan, California State University, Stanislaus

    To settle harsh environments, early humans needed friends

  2. Slippery Rock University paleontologist Fabian Hardy and Anne Kort, assistant professor in the U-M Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, discuss data and plan their next move at the field site of Red Rock Canyon State Park. Image credit: Brianne Catlin

    Ancient American pronghorns were built for speed

  3. Life reconstruction of Platysomus, with open mouth showing toothplate on the floor of the mouth supported by gill bones. Image credit: Joschua Knüppe

    310-million-year-old fossil takes a bite out of fish evolution

  4. Sunscreen, clothes and caves may have helped Homo sapiens survive 41,000 years ago

  5. The four tail clubs attributed to Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis, in top views (top row) and underside views (bottom row). Specimen numbers are at the top. Image courtesy of the researchers

    New insights into sauropod evolution: Discovery of tail clubs in India

  6. Concept illustration of evolution. Image credit: Nicole Smith, made with Midjourney

    The evolving attitudes of Gen X toward evolution

  7. University of Michigan researcher Bill Sanders poses with a newly discovered skull and skeleton of a palaeoloxodont elephant, which is about 1.2 million years old. Image courtesy: Bill Sanders

    Elephants: Earth’s giant climate change canaries

  8. Concept illustration of paleolake in South Africa. Image credit: Nicole Smith, made with Midjourney

    South Africa’s desert-like interior may have been more inviting to our human ancestors

  9. Birds across the Americas are getting smaller and longer-winged as the world warms, and the smallest-bodied species are changing the fastest, according to a new University of Michigan-led study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new study combines data from two previously published papers that measured body-size and wing-length changes in a total of more than 86,000 bird specimens over four decades in North and South America. The North American study was conducted by the Field Museum in Chicago. From above, this photograph shows birds from the Field Museum building-collision study. From left to right: golden-crowned kinglet, brown creeper, magnolia warbler, Blackburnian warbler, indigo bunting, rose-breasted grosbeak, wood thrush, American robin, brown thrasher. Image credit: (c) Field Museum, Daryl Coldren.

    Smallest shifting fastest: Bird species body size predicts rate of change in a warming world

  10. Artistic rendering of the open woodland habitat reconstruction at Moroto II with Morotopithecus bishopi vertically climbing with infant on back and juvenile below. Active volcano (Mount Moroto) is in background. Fossil relative of an elephant (Prodeinotherium) is foraging in center back. Image credit: Corbin Rainbolt

    Apes may have evolved upright stature for leaves, not fruit, in open woodland habitats

  11. Concept illustration of evolving humans and a brain. Image credit: Nicole Smith, made with ChatGPT

    What evolutionary researchers believe (and don’t) about human psychology and behavior

  12. Blurry shadow silhouette of two boys confronting each other in school yard, Image credit: iStock

    Sizing up the competition based on sensitivity to pain

  13. Um jerboa bípede, uma das espécies de roedores incluídas em um estudo de imprevisibilidade nos movimentos de animais. Foto: Haydee Gutierrez

    How evolution overshot the optimum bone structure in hopping rodents

  14. What’s in a name? Glimmers of evolution in naming babies, choosing a dog, according to U-M researcher

  15. Animal coloration research: On the threshold of a new era

    Animal coloration research: On the threshold of a new era

  16. Deadly snakes or just pretending? The evolution of mimicry

    Deadly snakes or just pretending? The evolution of mimicry

  17. Predators and isolation shape the evolution of ‘island tameness,’ providing conservation insights

    Predators and isolation shape the evolution of ‘island tameness,’ providing conservation insights

  18. U-M, MSU partner to help students learn genomics and evolution

    U-M, MSU partner to help students learn genomics and evolution

  19. U-M Block M Logo

    U-M’s Robert Axelrod awarded National Medal of Science

  20. Evolution and venomous snakes: Diet distinguishes look-alikes on two continents

    Evolution and venomous snakes: Diet distinguishes look-alikes on two continents