The humble rodent “thumb” may not seem like an obvious window into evolution, but its keratinized tip – the unguis (hoof, claw, or nail) – turns out to reveal striking insights into rodent history and ...

Premieres Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream with KPBS+. The surprising story of mammal evolution begins long before the age of dinosaurs. Witness how some of our earliest ...

Rodents in Chicago have been adapting to an increasingly urban environment over the past century, a new study has shown. Evolution generally entails seeing small changes passed down over generations, ...

Researchers (left to right) Gordon Shepherd, Anderson Feijó, Lauren Johnson, and Rafaela Missagia, working in the Field Museum’s mammal collections. Picture a squirrel eating an acorn. It’s holding ...

The legions of squirrels breaking into backyard bird feeders benefit from a surprising trait developed over millions of years—tiny hands with four claws and a human-looking thumbnail. This combination ...