The Cretaceous Period lasted for nearly 80 million years. Discover what the climate was like in this geological period, where the continents were and what animals and plants lived on them. Find out how an asteroid ended the age of dinosaurs.

Our closest ancient human relatives. Neanderthals were humans like us, but they were a distinct species called Homo neanderthalensis.. Read Chris Stringer's argument for why Neanderthals should be considered a separate species from Homo sapiens >. Together with an Asian people known as Denisovans, Neanderthals are our closest ancient human relatives.

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The word Anthropocene comes from the Greek terms for human ('anthropo') and new ('cene'), but its definition is controversial. It was coined in the 1980s, then popularised in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul J Crutzen and diatom researcher Eugene F Stoermer.

Aphids are little sap-sucking insects that secrete honeydew, a sugary liquid that is the waste product of their diet. Many aphid species are known to engage in a mutualistic relationship with ants that feed on the honeydew by 'milking' the aphids with their antennae.

What is an axolotl? The axolotl, Ambystoma mexicanum, is a type of salamander that doesn't go through metamorphosis. Salamanders are amphibians that, like frogs and newts, start off living in the water. Salamanders usually go through a process called metamorphosis to become adults - like a tadpole transforming into a frog.

The UK is home to two squirrel species: the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).The species you are more likely to see scampering through the trees or ransacking your bird feeders will depend on your location, though grey squirrels, which are not native to the UK, are now far more common in most areas.

The earliest definitive dinosaur is not one animal but an entire ecosystem containing a few different species. There's no universally accepted dinosaur species that lived earlier in time. Dating to around 230 million years ago, in the Late Triassic Period, the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina contains an array of animal remains.It shows that …

The hydrozoan Turritopsis dohrnii, an animal about 4.5 millimetres wide and tall (likely making it smaller than the nail on your little finger), can actually reverse its life cycle.It has been dubbed the immortal jellyfish. When the medusa of this species is physically damaged or experiences stresses such as starvation, instead of dying it shrinks in on itself, reabsorbing its tentacles and ...

Natural selection is a mechanism of evolution. Organisms that are more adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and pass on the genes that aided their success. This process causes species to change and diverge over time. Natural selection is one of the ways to account for the millions ...