Evolution
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Hurricane coming? Get bigger toepads
Study suggests lizards evolve to hang on.
Lizard groups that frequently experience hurricanes evolve larger toepads than those that don’t, according to a new s...
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Worms programmed to die early
It appears to be all for the sake of the colony.
Here’s one for the evolutionary theorists. British researchers say they have found worms that are genetically pred...
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Animal ancestor primera
Earliest ancestor of all modern animals identified.
The ancient stone at Nilpena fossil site, about 600 kilometres north of Adelaide, South Australia, has yielded some o...
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How human hands evolved from fish fins
Ancient fish fossil could provide ‘missing link’.
A complete Elpistostege watsoni fish fossil found in Miguasha, Canada, has shed new light on how vertebrate hands cou...
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‘Wonderchicken’ fossil from dinosaur age
Find sheds light on the origin of modern birds.
Palaeontologists have found the oldest fossil of a modern bird, originating from before the last mass extinction that...
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If lower limbs aren't used, get rid of them
Researchers describe earliest example of ‘secondary loss’.
Scientists say they have discovered the earliest known example of an animal evolving to lose body parts it no longer ...
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Untangling branches in the mammal tree of life
Research allows comparisons among distantly related lineages.
A new approach to the mammalian tree of life allows comparison between mammals as distantly related as a platypus and...
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Dung beetle’s horns not so novel after all
Research finds they stem from the same genes as wings.
A revelation that the dung beetle’s thoracic horns grew from wing genes challenges biology textbook definitions of no...
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Why mammals have such complex backbones
Dramatic evolutionary changes were linked to their active nature and high metabolisms, research s...
Compared to other vertebrate animals such as reptiles, mammals have complex and unexpectedly weird backbones. Their ...
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Species v hybrid. More fuel for the debate
The evolutionary importance of hybridisation.
By their nature, conflicting ideas about evolution aren’t easily resolved. Some – such as the role of hybridisation i...
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How mammals inherited the Earth
Scientists map out first million years of life after the dinosaurs
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid roughly the size of Malta slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The...
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European pigs shook off their ancestry
Modern breeds show virtually no signs of arrival from Near East.
When ancient Near Eastern farmers migrated westward into Europe about 8500 years ago, they brought their pigs with th...