New research shows that the earliest sponges were soft bodied and lacked skeletons, explaining why their oldest fossils are ...

The next time you go wild swimming, whether in a lake, river or sea, you are probably sharing the water with one of your tiniest, yet closest relatives. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest ...

Being a punk rocker means being perpetually misunderstood. So perhaps it’s vindication that that some seafloor fossils, once considered just piles of decomposing gunk, may now be reclassified as ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. three large barrel sponges growing underwater. the background is pure blue. a small angelfish is swimming into the central sponge.

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 ...

Meet Tyrannoroter heberti, a newly described species that was one of the largest, most feared land animals of its time – at least, if you were a fern. Hailing from 307 million years ago, this strange ...

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 ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. An illustration shows what researchers believe Tyrannoroter heberti looked like. - Hannah Fredd A chunky, squat creature that ...

Half a billion years ago, the first true eye emerged in Earth’s oceans. Fossils now reveal what that ancient crystal vision could actually see.

518-million-year-old fossil reveals vertebrates once had four eyes and extra organs that later shaped evolution.

The next time you go wild swimming, whether in a lake, river or sea, you are probably sharing the water with one of your tiniest, yet closest relatives. Choanoflagellates, like most single celled ...

(CNN) — A chunky, squat creature that roamed Earth 307 million years ago is helping scientists understand how plant-eating animals first appeared on land. The newly described species is one of the ...