Charles Darwin proposed "natural selection" as the means by which new creatures evolve. The question then became, what does nature select? The reigning consensus is that nature selects individuals with genetic mutations, and that this eventually leads to the development of new life forms.

The Guinness Book of World Records is renowned for its collection of odd feats and extraordinary measurements. One of its entries may someday be a young miniature stallion named Einstein, which promises to rewrite the record as the smallest horse ever.

Vampire bats, boas, pythons, and pit vipers―like rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouths―all have specialized infrared-sensing organs that allow them to determine if something might be prey. Of these creatures, the pit vipers’ “pit,” which is located between its eyes and nostrils, is by far the most sensitive.

Two species of passion-vine butterflies share the same wing patterns and coloring, which some scientists believe provide “some of the most striking examples of adaptation by natural selection.”¹ But specifically how these patterns emerged through natural selection has not been worked out in detail.

A new Smithsonian exhibit will feature fleshed-out faces “of our earliest human ancestors.”¹ Fossil evidence was combined with evolutionary beliefs to depict how these seven creatures may have looked. The artistic results are stunning, but are they actually historical reconstructions—or evolutionary propaganda?