New clues from fossils from the oldest soils on Earth suggest that multicellular, land-dwelling organisms might have emerged much earlier than we thought.
Singing humpback whales from different ocean basins seem to be picking up musical ideas from afar, and incorporating these new phrases and themes into their songs.
The Aral Sea was once the world's 4th-largest lake. But in the 1960s, the Soviet Union diverted 2 major rivers to irrigate farmland, and the Aral Sea has been slowly disappearing ever since.
A study traces black carbon from 1991 Kuwait oil fires to ice in northern Tibet. Researchers say this soot could affect glacier melt at the Tibetan plateau, considered the "Water Tower of Asia."
Researchers have said that Totten Glacier, a behemoth with enough ice to raise sea levels by 11 feet (3.4 meters), appears to be melting. Now, they say 4 glaciers west of Totten, and a handful farther east, are also losing ice.
From the months-long eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano to a strange object discovered on the surface of Mars - and more - here's a quick roundup of the stories our readers enjoyed most in 2018.