For decades, scientists have believed that complex life began when two very different microbes joined forces, eventually ...

The Tree of Life looks simple — until you actually try to navigate it. From sponges and starfish to dinosaurs and humans, this video explores how every living organism connects through evolution.

A giant virus discovered in Japan is adding fuel to the provocative idea that viruses helped create complex life. Named ushikuvirus, it infects amoebae and shows unique traits that connect different ...

Imagine zooming out on a giant family tree that includes every bird you have ever seen. Ostriches sprint across open plains, hummingbirds hover at flowers, penguins slice through cold seas, and eagles ...

Living organisms share an ancestor called the last universal common ancestor, or LUCA. LUCA is estimated to have lived ...

Researchers have shed new light on the features that enable tree-dwelling mammals to move effectively through their environments, providing insights into the evolution of the distinct upright postures ...

Scientists call this speck LUCA — the Last Universal Common Ancestor. Since the concept of LUCA first emerged, it has represented the ultimate horizon of our biological history. It is the oldest ...

Scientists propose that eukaryotes formed when an Asgard archaeon entered into a close partnership with an alphaproteobacterium. Over time, the two organisms became permanently linked. The ...

Duplicated genes that appear in every branch of the tree of life can provide us with insight into the evolution that occurred between the first lifeform and the last from which we all descend, ...

Marine animals, such as the extremely simple flatworm Trichoplax, are ideal model organisms for studying the early ...

New research into "universal paralog" genes reveals that the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) was not the first spark of life, but a successor that inherited complex genetic tools from an even ...

Some of Earth’s earliest microbes evolved the ability to use oxygen hundreds of millions of years before it accumulated in the atmosphere.