Long before Western astrology, the Chinese zodiac helped organize years, beliefs, and social life. Here’s how the system of 12 animals evolved over the centuries.

Learn more about ancient giant kangaroos and the previous research claiming they were too heavy to hop. A new study finds ...

An ancient and enormous organism called Prototaxites, initially found to be a type of fungus, may actually be an unknown ...

Turtles today are often slow-moving, modestly sized creatures, but their ancient relatives were quite different. Long before ...

Cheetahs vanished from Saudi Arabia half a century ago. Now long-dead mummified big cats may help herald their return.

In many ancient cultures, animals were viewed as messengers of the divine or direct manifestations of deities. Temples, being the most sacred centers of worship, naturally became spaces where animals ...

Researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN) have identified a new species of rhino that once roamed Canada’s High Arctic 23 million years ago. The extinct rhinoceros, described in the journal ...

Fossil studies of the extinct predator Dissacus praenuntius offer clues as to how ancient animals responded to environmental changes. The ancient omnivore was about the size of a jackal or a coyote.

In the heart of ancient India, people believed something truly powerful—animals had souls. They weren’t just beings to be used for work, protection, or rituals. They were seen as emotional, ...

A groundbreaking new study from Bar-Ilan University shows that one of sleep's core functions originated hundreds of millions of years ago in jellyfish and sea anemones, among the earliest creatures ...

An analysis of the bones and teeth of ancient mammoths (Mammuthus) has identified some of the microorganisms that lived in the animals’ mouths and bodies more than one million years ago. The study, ...

Long before the Black Death killed millions across Europe in the Middle Ages, an earlier, more elusive version of the plague spread across much of Eurasia. For years, scientists were unsure how the ...