Explore 83 Evolution Collections - Atlas Obscura
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A green smudge in a sun-baked orange expanse, the modern oasis of Jubbah was once a lake, and may have appealed to the first members of our species to leave Africa.
exploration

A Desert Oasis Hints at a Long History of Resilience and Exploration

On the Arabian Peninsula, Jubbah holds clues to how humans adapted in the past.
Gemma Tarlach April 20, 2021
Viewed from overhead, the promontory of Dmanisi includes medieval and Bronze Age ruins, a working monastery, and a small but rich fossil site.
skulls

The Carnivore Paradise That Keeps Changing the Story of Human Evolution

New research at Dmanisi continues to challenge what we think we know about our deep past.
Gemma Tarlach April 9, 2021
A burrowing bettong, also known as the boodie, in the Australian Outback.
genetics

How Far Should Humans Go to Help Species Adapt?

An Australian project to help threatened marsupials avoid predatory cats is one of a host of 'assisted evolution' efforts.
Atlas Obscura March 16, 2021
At Plaza San Martín in Buenos Aires, Argentina, crown shyness is hiding in plain sight.
nature

Trees Have Their Own Way of Social Distancing

A treetop expert explains the mystery of "crown shyness."
Zoe Baillargeon September 8, 2020
Painted turtle hatchlings can spend a winter burrowed in the sand where they're born, and freeze tolerance helps them survive it.
animals

Meet Some of Nature's Coolest Customers

To survive wild temperature swings, freeze-tolerant creatures can do something unthinkable to other species.
Luna Shyr August 17, 2020
A 3D model of the extinct marsupial <em>Thylacosmilus atrox</em>.
animals

Why Did This Ancient Marsupial Have Saber Teeth?

Turns out they're useful if you want to slurp up your food.
Isaac Schultz June 26, 2020
Replica of the 12,000-year-old Chimalhuacán Man and the mammoth mural.
Acolman, Mexico

Museum of Tepexpan

A museum built around the site where the most controversial human remains in the country were found.
The animal's stubby legs and stumpy tail resemble a badger's. The rest of its anatomy raises more questions than it answers.
islands

How Island Evolution Forged a Bizarre Mammal in Ancient Madagascar

Back when reptiles were all the rage, Adalatherium really stood out.
Isaac Schultz May 4, 2020
Even in hurricane-force winds, the anole manages to hang on.
islands

Lizards Are Evolving in Response to Fierce Hurricane Seasons

They need to get a grip.
Isaac Schultz April 30, 2020
According to recent genetic analyses, "forest cats" may have arrived on the island as far back as 1,000 years ago.
genetics

The True Origin Story of Madagascar's 'Forest Cat'

Turns out this big, striped lemur-eater didn't come from mainland Africa.
Jennifer S. Holland March 23, 2020
Tokyo, Japan

Omori Shell Mound

The site of Japan’s first archaeological excavation is also the birthplace of fingerprint forensics.
It's an aye-aye surprise! Madagascar's battiest lemur is the only primate with four thumbs.
biodiversity

For the Madagascan Aye-Aye, the Rule of Thumb Comes in Two

The extra digits are yet another of the odd animal's oddities.
Isaac Schultz February 19, 2020
The Tasmanian devil, a talisman of Australian wildlife, was catalogued and illustrated by John and Elizabeth Gould in the mid-19th century, then rendered as a lithograph by H.C. Richter.
art

See Australian Fauna in These Audubon-esque Illustrations

The 19th-century lithographs document a unique biodiversity that’s slipping away.
Isaac Schultz February 6, 2020
Excavations in the terraces of the Solo River, where just over 100,000 years ago, <em>Homo erectus</em> remains piled up.
ancient

Found: The Last Stand of a Human Ancestor

The newly dated remains were found amid thousands of other bones on an Indonesian island.
Isaac Schultz December 26, 2019
A sea lily, spotted off the Northwest Guam Seamount.
fossils

A Sea Lily Fossil in Utah Just Solved an Evolutionary Mystery

“This tears off one branch in the tree of life and rearranges it another way.”
Sabrina Imbler December 16, 2019
Okay, this guy's a snake.
snakes

How a Fossilized Snake With Legs Fits Into the Lineage of Lizards

“Snakes are just fancy lizards,” says one evolutionary biologist.
Sabrina Imbler December 6, 2019
For the first time since the days of Darwin, these iguanas are living on Santiago Island.
islands

The Whack-a-Mole Survival of Galapagos Land Iguanas

Moving them from island to island is one way to conserve them.
Isaac Schultz November 7, 2019
Primate specimens at London's Grant Museum of Zoology.
natural history museums

In London, Natural History Museums Confront Their Colonial Histories

It's not as easy as returning stolen statues.
Sabrina Imbler October 14, 2019