Explore the history of life on Earth, from 3.5-billion-year-old fossils to the vast diversity of species on our planet today.

Without the right oxygen balance, phosphorus and nitrogen vanish — and life can't take hold. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Life ...

Learning about the past is usually easier than predicting the future, but deciphering the earliest history of life on Earth seems to be an exception to the rule. Of course, we're not entirely in the ...

One debate about the origin of life on Earth concerns whether it formed around deep-sea hydrothermal vents or in scars left behind by an asteroid impact. A new review article analyzes recent research ...

Asteroid impacts may have helped kick-start life on Earth by creating hot, chemical-rich environments ideal for early biology. These impact-generated hydrothermal systems could have lasted thousands ...

Earth may have won a cosmic chemistry lottery. Researchers found that during the planet’s earliest formation, oxygen had to be in an extremely narrow “Goldilocks zone” for two life-essential elements, ...

How did life begin on Earth? While scientists have theories, they don’t yet fully understand the precise chemical steps that led to biology, or when the first primitive life forms appeared. But what ...

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Life on Earth may exist thanks to an incredible stroke of luck — a chemical sweet spot that most planets miss during their formation but ours managed to hit. A new study shows that Earth formed under ...