During these waves of mass extinction, most vertebrate survivors were confined to refugia, or isolated biodiversity hotspots ...

A rapid climate collapse during the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction devastated ocean life and reshuffled Earth’s ecosystems.

A devastating ice age wiped out most marine life, yet new research reveals how this ancient disaster unexpectedly paved the ...

The basic decision-making circuitry underlying social behaviors such as fighting and mating is incredibly similar in all vertebrates, from fish to mammals, new research suggests. These networks may be ...

A massive ice age wiped out ocean life 445 million years ago, reshaping ecosystems and setting the stage for jawed fish ...

Researchers recently discovered that the sea lamprey, a modern representative of ancient jawless vertebrates, fights invading pathogens by generating up to 100 trillion unique receptors. These ...

A stunningly preserved, soft-bodied fish that is more than 500 million years old could be the ancestor of almost all living vertebrates. The fossilized fish, called Metaspriggina, sports ...

Individual Greenland sharks appear to live perhaps a century longer than any other vertebrate, and might have life spans approaching 500 years. By human standards, a few vertebrate species have ...

As it turns out, the spineless and the brave stand up to adversity the same way. A key protein involved in animals’ physiological responses to stress has carried out the same function since before any ...