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The arrival of substantial numbers of early human ancestors ( Homo erectus) in the Southeast Asian prehistoric landmass of Sundaland, approximately 1.8 million years ago, likely triggered an evolutionary shift in Leucosphyrus mosquitoes, according to a new study. Researchers from The University of Manchester suggest that during the Early Pleistocene, the arrival and presence of these early hominins drove the mosquitoes to adapt to feeding on humans.

New research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has revealed that when dinosaurs leapt into the air, they may have used their tails as well as their legs. The study concludes that long-tailed, bipedal carnivores (like Velociraptor ) could have powered higher jumps by swinging their massive tails - a strategy that was later lost as birds evolved shorter tails and had to adopt different jumping techniques.

Researchers have identified a 'tipping point' about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold and chaotic, as continental ice sheets expanded in the northern hemisphere. Following this transition, Earth's climate began swinging back and forth between warm interglacial periods and frigid ice ages, linked to slow, cyclic changes in Earth's orbit.

A photograph of a second Jamoytius specimen, again with a zinc X-ray map overlain at top, where the eye structure is visible but less well preserved. In this specimen the body scales were also preserved and when mapped for the elements calcium (bottom left) and phosphorous (bottom right) the scales are shown to have the same chemistry as bone.

Scientists studying the fossil remains of giant prehistoric kangaroos have found that even animals weighing more than 200kg may not have been too big to bounce, overturning long-held assumptions about the limits of hopping. Today, the red kangaroo is the largest living hopping animal and weighs around 90kg.

A remarkable prehistoric hammer made from elephant bone, dating back nearly half a million years ago, has been uncovered in southern England and analysed by archaeologists from UCL and the Natural History Museum, London. It is the oldest elephant bone tool to ever be discovered in Europe and provides an extraordinary glimpse into the ingenuity of the early human ancestors who made it.

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A fossil discovered in Scotland has revealed a new species and family of Jurassic reptile linked to the origins of lizards and snakes, reports a study co-led by a UCL researcher. Published in Nature by an international team including researchers at UCL, the American Museum of Natural History, National Museums Scotland and colleagues in the UK, France and South Africa, the study describes a previously unknown Jurassic reptile that lived around 167 million years ago.

Newly discovered fossils reveal that Spicomellus afer's skeleton was covered in spikes, some fused to the animal's skeleton, measuring as much as a metre long. The world's most unusual dinosaur is even stranger than first realised, as new research published in Nature reports that Spicomellus afer had a tail weapon more than 30 million years before any other ankylosaur, as well as a unique bony collar ringed with metre-long spikes sticking out from either side of its neck.

Left: Life reconstruction of the giant Jurassic ichthyosaur Temnodontosaurus, highlighting the winglike flipper and the unusual structures observed in the fin. Artwork by Joschua Knüppe. Right: Photograph of Drs Lomax and Lindgren, together with fellow researcher Sven Sachs, examining one part of the flipper at Lund University, Sweden.

A new study led by our Earth Sciences department has made a surprising discovery about a mysterious fossil from the Cambrian period - over 500 million years ago. The fossil, Shishania aculeata , was originally thought to be an early mollusc, a group that includes snails and clams. But new research shows that it is actually a sponge-like animal known as a chancelloriid.

The idea that dinosaurs were already in decline before an asteroid wiped most of them out 66 million years ago may be explained by a worsening fossil record from that time rather than a genuine dwindling of dinosaur species, suggests a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in  Current Biology , analysed the fossil record of North America in the 18 million years up to the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period (between 66 and 84 million years ago).

Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe. Our history is far richer and more complex than we imagined Aylwyn Scally Using advanced analysis based on full genome sequences, researchers from the University of Cambridge have found evidence that modern humans are the result of a genetic mixing event between two ancient populations that diverged around 1.5 million years ago.

The oldest collection of mass-produced prehistoric bone tools reveal that human ancestors were likely capable of more advanced abstract reasoning one million years earlier than thought, finds a new study involving researchers at UCL and CSIC- Spanish National Research Council. The paper, published in Nature, describes a collection of 27 now-fossilised bones that had been shaped into hand tools 1.5 million years ago by human ancestors.

A team including UCL researchers has identified two new dinosaur species found in present-day Romania that lived shortly before dinosaurs went extinct. The end of the Cretaceous Period, 66 million years ago, marked the dramatic extinction of the dinosaurs following an asteroid impact. Until now, our understanding of this mass extinction has been largely shaped by fossils from North America.

The microarchitecture of fossil pterosaur bones could hold the key to lighter, stronger materials for the next generation of aircraft, new research has found. Scientists from The University of Manchester used advanced X-ray imaging techniques to examine fossilised bones of the prehistoric flying reptile at the smallest scale, revealing hidden engineering solutions right in the palm of their hands..or fingers to be precise.

Modern humans, Neanderthals, and other recent relatives on our human family tree evolved bigger brains much more rapidly than earlier species, a new study of human brain evolution has found. The study, published in the journal PNAS , overturns long-standing ideas about human brain evolution. The researchers found that brain size increased gradually within each ancient human species rather than through sudden leaps between species.

Writing in The Conversation, Research Fellow Dr Sandra Álvarez-Carretero (UCL Biosciences) explains how her research offers new insights into the origin of life on Earth. Understanding how life began and evolved on Earth is a question that has fascinated humans for a long time, and modern scientists have  made great advances  when it comes to finding some answers.

The discovery, published in Nature, opens a new window on early animal evolution. At first glance, the simple, spikey sea sponge is no creature of mystery. No brain. No gut. No problem dating them back 700 million years. Yet convincing sponge fossils only go back about 540 million years, leaving a 160-million-year gap in the fossil record.

The ability to regulate body temperature, a trait all mammals and birds have today, may have evolved among some dinosaurs early in the Jurassic period about 180 million years ago, suggests a new study led by UCL and University of Vigo researchers. In the early 20 century, dinosaurs were considered slow-moving, "cold-blooded" animals like modern-day reptiles, relying on heat from the sun to regulate their temperature.