When thinking about the ancient animals of Earth, you likely picture fish, birds, and dinosaurs. But a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the ...

It might be cold in the Antarctic, but that doesn't mean that life there necessarily moves slowly. A report appearing in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, on July 11 reveals the discovery of ...

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. Subscribe to our newsletter ...

For this week's Sea Camp, we're diving below the surface to explore the sunlight zone, the portion of ocean that's 0-200 meters deep. This is where phytoplankton eat sunlight, poop out sugar and ...

A team of scientists digging up some of the Earth’s oldest rocks has uncovered new chemical evidence that Earth’s first animals were likely ancestors of the modern sea sponge. The discovery relies on ...

Biological systems are renowned for their ability to create strong yet resilient structures. A sea sponge, for instance, grows in layers, forming unique patterns that integrate minerals with softer ...

Inside deep-sea coral in the Pacific, an iridescent creature waits in ambush. Zhou Y, Zhang R, Shen C, Mao Q, Zhang M, Zhang D (2025) ZooKeys The underwater mountains of the northwest Pacific are ...