A pinkie bone found in Russia offers a key to our complicated common heritage.

A new thesis puts the explanation for the sudden appearance of sophisticated late-prehistoric coastal settlements underwater�in the Persian Gulf, to be specific, which up to 7,500 years ago would have been a vast oasis in the midst of the arid ice ages.

The teeth of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus remain sharp through a lifetime of rock-scraping. But do they come with a matching fork for easy carving?

As this image from the GOES-13 satellite shows, the snow that hit the Eastern Seaboard was delivered by a formidable storm. Picture after the jump.

Exotic lighter-than-air craft�including argon- and methane-filled balloons and hopping dirigibles�offer tantalizing prospects for future missions to Saturn's largest moon.

What's behind the starry flap? Follow the jump to see today's scene, the latest in a collection of space imagery compiled by Alan Taylor for the Boston Globe's photo blog, The Big Picture.

The coats of arms of famous scientists�some inherited, some invented by their famous holders�have something to tell us about change and continuity in the symbolism of power and authority.

Astonishing caverns near the Ascraeus volcano on Mars aren't the holes left by Frank Herbert's sandworms, but they may evince past volcanic activity.

The Earth's shadow cast against the Moon evokes the space shuttle Discovery's dwindling, penumbral career.

The Pioneer anomaly, a long-discussed discrepancy between the expected and actual speeds of the Pioneer spacecraft, has tantalized researchers with the possibility of an exotic new physics. A solution may be close at hand�and even if it supports the standard model, it's pretty amazing.