New research from the University of St Andrews has discovered a crucial piece in the puzzle of how all animals with a ...
Many spine-bearing creatures, or vertebrates, have a curious bit of tissue deep in their brains called the pineal gland. It ...
About 445 million years ago, Earth’s oceans turned into a danger zone. Glaciers spread across the supercontinent Gondwana, ...
Every mammal, every fish, every vertebrate (creatures that have a spine) has two eyes. It’s been that way for millions and ...
New fossil evidence from China suggests that some of our vertebrate ancestors had four eyes. The study, published in Nature, ...
Ancient fossils reveal the oldest known vertebrates had four eyes. Remarkably preserved fossil specimens show they could see ...
From genetics alone, scientists can now predict how long any of myriad different creatures can live. The “lifespan clock” estimates vertebrate animals’ (those with a backbone) longevity — including ...
Those of you who took high school biology may remember the lancelet, also known as the amphioxus. Its simplified body plan is notable for containing a number of features that it shares in common with ...
Vertebrates have extremely different brain sizes: even with the same body size, brain size can vary a hundredfold. As a rule, mammals and birds have the largest brains in relation to their body size, ...
Scarce evidence indicates that key evolutionary steps for jawed vertebrates occurred during or before the Silurian period, 444 million to 419 million years ago. Fossil finds pull back the curtain on ...
Researchers have elucidated the evolutionary origins of placodes and neural crests, which are defining features of vertebrates, through lineage tracing and genetic analysis in Ciona intestinalis, a ...