Ancient dental plaque shows some Neanderthals ate plants and used drugs

DNA from prehistoric dental plaque shows some Neanderthals were vegetarians who used plant-based medicines. Reconstruction of the oldest microbe genome yet, sequenced from the plaque, also suggests Neanderthals may have kissed or swapped food with other humans at least 120,000 years ago.

Plant-like fossils, believed to be red algae, found in 1.6 billion-year-old rocks

New scanning technology has given scientists an extraordinary view inside the cells of what may be the oldest plant-like fossils ever found. The find pushes back the date of the oldest-known identifiable complex plant-like fossil — also red algae — by 400 million years.

Fossilised filaments from hot ocean vent claimed to be earliest evidence of life on Earth

Tiny mineralised filaments smaller than a human hair found in rocks more than 3.77 billion years old may be evidence of one of the oldest lifeforms on Earth.

Bees learn new tricks from one another

Bumblebees can not only learn to use tools by observing others, they can improvise and make the task even easier.