Anatomic variation, as a biological process, refers to the genetically and developmentally determined divergence in the form, size, position, or number of anatomical structures among individuals of the same species. It arises from coordinated molecular, cellular, and morphogenetic events during embryogenesis and postnatal growth, including differential gene expression, signaling gradients, and tissue patterning mechanisms that modulate organogenesis and body plan architecture. These variations are typically nonpathological and occur within a spectrum of species-typical phenotypes, contributing to phenotypic diversity, influencing physiological function, and modulating susceptibility to disease, surgical risk, and outcomes of diagnostic and interventional procedures.
A new study of British wrens has provided new insights into the inner workings of "island syndromes," according to research led by the University of Birmingham. The paper, published in the Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean ...
Evolution
May 28, 2026
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114
Ascidians, also known as sea squirts, are the evolutionary link between vertebrates and invertebrates, making them valuable subjects of biological studies. For the first time, researchers at Ruhr University Bochum have detected ...
Plants & Animals
May 27, 2026
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Different beak and jaw shapes are illustrative examples of how animal species have adapted to different food sources. In a new study published in the journal Nature, researchers now show how diet itself shapes the composition ...
Plants & Animals
May 18, 2026
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26
It is one of the strangest puzzles in human evolution. About 90% of people across every human culture favor their right hand—with no other primate species showing a population-level preference on this scale. Despite decades ...
Evolution
May 15, 2026
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1446
Shapes of beaks and snouts come in an extraordinary range of forms, reflecting adaptations to different lifestyles and environments. Yet beneath this diversity lies a paradox: across birds and mammals, faces are built using ...
Evolution
May 7, 2026
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12
Dogs have long been known to have smaller brains than the wolves they descended from. But when they started to shrink has been a matter of some debate. New research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, which ...
A new study comparing invasive cane toads in Japan and Australia has found substantial changes in body size and shape have developed much more rapidly than suggested by long-held ideas of the pace of evolution. Researchers ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 21, 2026
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104
In the spring, ants are once again hard at work. Beyond their everyday presence, ants are also key model organisms in cutting-edge evolutionary genetics research, helping scientists understand how social behavior and cooperation ...
Evolution
Apr 20, 2026
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18
We thought it was evolution, but an experiment with pencils shows that tips like teeth and thorns may owe their rounded shape to mechanical wear. Most of us have been stung by a bee, bitten by an animal, or scratched by a ...
Evolution
Apr 10, 2026
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154
Leaf through a textbook, watch a wellness influencer, or listen in at the gym, and it can feel as though the human body has already been mapped to exhaustion. Every muscle named, every nerve traced. Everything understood ...
Evolution
Mar 30, 2026
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