New evidence from rocks, molecules and machine learning is forcing scientists to redraw the opening chapters of Earth’s story, pushing the first stirrings of biology far closer to the planet’s violent ...

Explore the history of life on Earth, from 3.5-billion-year-old fossils to the vast diversity of species on our planet today.

Three rare discoveries — the earliest human Cryptosporidium infection in Roman Bulgaria, a 500-million-year-old tunicate fossil in Utah, and worm-like fossils from pre-animal China — are offering ...