Michael Marshall

We shouldn't dismiss flowers as merely ornamental – these blooms are world-changers, argues a vivid new book by David George Haskell

As the threat of war looms larger, experts warn that the UK must start planning now to scale up military evacuations, recruit retired medics and protect hospitals from attack

The Neanderthal population shrank during a cold spell around 75,000 years ago, and the loss of genetic diversity may have contributed to their eventual extinction

This program transports participants to four of the world’s most revealing prehistoric landscapes - Morocco, the Neanderthal heartlands of France, northern Spain, and Turkey

Tar made from birch tree bark is commonly found at Neanderthal sites, and experiments show that it kills some bacteria that cause skin infections

Ancient DNA reveals that the Goths of eastern Europe, some of whom would ultimately sack the city of Rome, may have been a mix of peoples from three continents

Simulations of Australopithecus hominins’ anatomy suggest that when they gave birth, they may have exerted tremendous pressure on their pelvic floors, putting them at risk of tearing

Their species name is well known, but until recently we’ve understood very little for certain about Homo habilis

A single femur found in Bulgaria appears to represent an ape or early hominin that walked on two legs before any known African hominin, but the evidence is far from conclusive

Sonselasuchus cedrus, discovered in fossils from Arizona, was a crocodile relative from the Triassic period that grew into an ostrich-like adult

An exceptionally flexible region of the spine enables falling cats to twist the front and back halves of their body sequentially to ensure a safe landing

The end-Permian extinction 252 million years ago wiped out over 80 per cent of marine species, but many ecosystems still had complex food webs despite the losses

Use of AI-based ambient listening tools is rising sharply in medicine, but research on their benefits and training about best practice are still sparse

Genetic evidence hints that there was a strong bias for male Neanderthals and female humans to mate, rather than any other combination

Rocks from a global ice age over 600 million years ago show records of an active climate