How life started on our own planet may not seem as interesting as finding evidence of life on Mars or the icy moons Europa or Enceladus. But the search for the first eukaryotes on Earth remains as ...

A team of MIT geochemists has unearthed new evidence in very old rocks suggesting that some of the first animals on Earth were likely ancestors of the modern sea sponge. The newly identified chemical ...

Sponges may be ancient, but their timeline has been murky. New research suggests the earliest sponges were soft and skeleton-free, explaining why their fossils don’t appear until much later. By ...

Scientists at MIT have found compelling chemical evidence that Earth’s earliest animals were likely ancient sea sponges. Hidden inside rocks over 541 million years old are rare molecular “fingerprints ...

On Earth, life thrives in some of the most seemingly inhospitable environments. Single-celled organisms like bacteria teem in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, where temperatures reach ...

This publication has been produced to meet accepted Accessibility standards and contains various accessibility features including concise image descriptions, a table of contents, a page list to ...

Using complex climate models, researchers have pinned down the point at which life will no longer be able to survive on Earth.

Scientists are listening in on sperm whale conversations and studying Earth's strangest microbes to prepare humanity for first contact with extraterrestrial life. Tardigrades—a type of invertebrate ...