Our backbones helped us and other vertebrate animals conquer the oceans, and move onto land and into skies. Until now, the early history of the group have been a bit of a mystery, but a new analysis ...

A set of jaws can invoke visions of deadly toothy sharks, and now scientists find the earliest fish with chops — the ancestors of all jawed creatures with backbones — were also armed with teeth, ...

From genetics alone, scientists can now predict how long any of myriad different creatures can live. The “lifespan clock” estimates vertebrate animals’ (those with a backbone) longevity — including ...

(CNN) — Hundreds of millions of years ago, jawless fishes swam Earth’s seas, their brains protected on the outside by armored skin, and on the inside by plates made of cartilage. Scientists are still ...

Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in ...

Lab rats have rights. Before researchers in the United States can experiment on the animals, they need approval from committees that ensure they follow federal regulations for housing and handling the ...

Bees are not the only animals that carry pollen from flower to flower. Species with backbones, among them bats, birds, mice, and even lizards, also serve as pollinators. Although less familiar as ...

Humans have hardy prehistoric fish ancestors to thank for paving the way to their eventual evolution, a new study suggests. About 360 million years ago a mass extinction event hit the reset button on ...

Vertebrates are animals with a backbone. You are a vertebrate. And now, a researcher has formally described the world’s tiniest vertebrate — a new species of frog. The frog measures less than ...

Unlike vertebrate embryo cells, which signal to each other over long distances, sea squirt embryo cells talk only to those they’re closest to. By Katherine J. Wu Building a body from scratch is a ...