A new species of chimaera found in Californian waters has been given a name. Chimaeras are bizarre cartilaginous fish with features that stand out among other fish. What also stands out is their lack of evolutionary change over supposed eons of evolutionary time.

Pandas face a difficult future, despite great efforts to preserve them. With their dwindling population, shrinking habitat, and weakening genetic strength, one evolutionist has suggested that these longstanding symbols of the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) should be allowed to die out.

Ardipithecus ramidus is an extinct primate whose fossilized remains were first found along the Awash River in Ethiopia about 15 years ago. Many fragments were collected, including shattered bones from a four-foot-tall female nicknamed "Ardi." She was chosen to represent her kind, apparently because of the comparative completeness of her remains.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Darwin published his proposal that all creatures on earth emerged naturally from a common ancestor through a process of gradual change. Although this hypothesis rapidly pervaded Western thinking about origins, substantial corroborating evidence for such morphing between various organisms has not materialized.