The Senegal Bichir: A Living Fossil
The Senegal bichir represents an early branch of ray-finned fish, preserving traits that trace back nearly 380 million years.
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Evolution
Ginkgo biloba — A Living Fossil in My Backyard
A lineage can survive for hundreds of millions of years while remaining morphologically recognizable. Living fossil is poetic, but scientifically the ginkgo represents a relict lineage and a morphologically conservative lineage.
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Stem Selachians: Modern Sharks LCA
The shark body plan stabilized early. By 300 million years ago, the streamlined, hydrodynamic silhouette that defines sharks today was already established.
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First Land Herbivore: Tyrannoroter heberti
By 307 million years ago, land herbivory had already begun in early reptiles known as microsaurs.
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Platypus–Ape Common Ancestor
Not yet a “full” mammal, the last common ancestor between us and the platypus lived around 225 million years ago.
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Proto-Play
In the shadowed forests of the Late Carboniferous, long before mammals, birds, or even dinosaurs, a few small, lizard-like amniotes began to do something remarkable — they started to move not just for need, but for pleasure. Between the still instincts of amphibians and the lively games of future mammals, something new flickered: proto-play. These
First True Dinosaur: Eoraptor lunensis.
One of the earliest known true dinosaurs in the Dinosauria order is Eoraptor lunensis. From this predatory bird-like precursor, the birds and dinosaurs emerged. This direct-line ancestor evolved into theropods, birds, sauropods and ornithischians. Eoraptor emerged during the Late Triassic period, approximately 231.4 million years ago, in what is now Argentina. It is considered one
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Higher Play Evolves in Social Mammals
In more advanced forms, play becomes a complex tool for social bonding, emotional learning, and cognitive development. Carnivores like wolves and cats engage in cooperative games that refine group hunting skills, while elephants are known for their intricate, playful interactions that build emotional connections. Among primates, play takes on its most elaborate forms, fostering problem-solving,
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Early Play Evolves in Mammals
Play in its most basic form likely began as simple, physical interactions aimed at honing survival skills. Modern animals like squirrels, kangaroos, and hedgehogs still exhibit these foundational behaviors, engaging in chasing, pouncing, and wrestling. These actions help young animals develop coordination and reflexes while providing a safe way to practice life-essential tasks. Surprisingly, even
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Red-Green Algae Split
About 200 million years after the broader separation of animals, plants, and fungi, red and green algae evolved from a common ancestor. Green algae later gave rise to land plants, with all land plants descending from green algae around 475 million years ago. Both green algae and land plants share chlorophyll, a key to their
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Baboons Branch Off: Old World Monkeys
The last common ancestor with humans and old-world monkeys lived around 29 million years ago. Around 25 to 29 million years ago, Old World monkeys, including species like baboons and macaques, branched off from the common ancestor shared with apes. Unlike their ape cousins, Old World monkeys retained their tails and adapted to a wider
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Gibbons Branch Off: Genus Hylobates
The last surviving primate before the great apes! Gibbons are a “lesser ape” that branched off from our common ancestor with great apes. By this time, our ancestors had already lost their tails (like all apes) and were very agile in trees, using brachiation (arm-swinging) to move through the canopy. Gibbons are known for their
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XX/XY Sex System Emerges: A Tale of Mammalian Evolution
Around 240 million years ago, during the late Triassic period, a crucial evolutionary development unfolded within the lineage that would give rise to mammals. It is believed that the XX/XY sex-determination system emerged in a common ancestor of mammals, possibly within the genus Therapsida, a group of synapsids that exhibited both reptilian and mammalian traits.
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Blood-like Flow Emerges
The movement of fluids, or circulation, evolved around 3.5 billion years ago in single-celled organisms to distribute nutrients and remove waste. Blood, a specialized fluid carrying nutrients and waste, evolved much later, around 1.2 billion years ago in multicellular organisms. It evolved to feed internal cells and carry away waste. As oxygen levels rose and
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Animal Vocabulary: Thousands of Words (The Great Apes)
All mammals, birds, and reptiles communicate on a spectrum shaped by evolution. Great ape communication goes back about 15 million years.
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Animal Vocabulary: Dozens of Words
By about 125 million years ago, mammals likely increased their vocabulary above a dozen and perhaps for some species at times into the hundreds. This vocabulary, or signaling, was a series of gestures, grunts, and screeches. Today, mammals from this lineage communicate with a range of signals and gestures, not unlike our abstract vocabulary. We
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Dinosauromorphs Emerge: Asilisaurus kongwe
In a testament to our understanding of evolution, archosaurs emerged around 255 million years ago, eventually giving rise to dinosaurs about 230 million years ago. Bridging this gap, the dinosauromorphs – a transitional group between archosaurs and dinosaurs – evolved approximately 245 million years ago. One notable early dinosauromorph is Asilisaurus kongwe, found in present-day
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Nyasasaurus parringtoni
The earliest known dinosaur is Nyasasaurus parringtoni, which lived during the Middle Triassic period, around 243 million years ago. Discovered in Tanzania, Nyasasaurus represents a key transitional form, showcasing features that are both dinosaurian and pre-dinosaurian, highlighting the evolutionary path leading to more well-known dinosaurs of the Late Triassic and beyond. This discovery pushes back
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Marasuchus lilloensis
Before dinosauromorphs like Asilisaurus, the evolutionary lineage would include earlier archosaurs. One such early archosaur is Marasuchus lilloensis, which lived around 240 million years ago. Marasuchus exhibits several primitive features that are on the evolutionary path towards dinosaurs. Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata > Class: Reptilia > Order: Dinosauriformes 30 to 40 cm (12 to
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The First Flowers
While the earliest fossils we have place the first flowers at about 130 million years ago, they likely evolved earlier. How much earlier is still under research. Recent molecular analysis suggests that the origins of flowering plants might extend back to between 149 and 256 million years ago. This type of research looks at the