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.
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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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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166
The combination of a beaver-like body and duck-like bill of the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is only the first of a long list of strange features on this unique creature. These odd mammals also lay eggs, have venomous ...
Researchers have found that the size of the amygdala—a region of the brain involved in processing emotions—could be linked to social tolerance in macaque monkeys. Their research, published today in eLife, is described by ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 3, 2026
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198
Centromeres play virtually the same central role across the entire tree of life: They ensure the faithful segregation of chromosomes during cell division. Yet the striking diversity in centromere architecture—from large, ...
Evolution
Feb 19, 2026
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Survival of the fittest. Nature red in tooth and claw. The common view of natural selection is based solely on the individual: A trait allows an organism to out-compete its rivals and is thus passed down to its offspring. ...
Evolution
Feb 17, 2026
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A single queen in the tropics; large colonies in deserts; workers with uniform morphology in temperate regions; ant social structures vary according to environmental conditions. This is shown, for the first time at a global ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 4, 2026
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Whether it's digging up weathered bones from a paleontological site or reexamining forgotten trays in museum and university collections, the study of dinosaurs still throws up something new.
A great white shark is a masterwork of evolutionary engineering. These beautiful predators glide effortlessly through the water, each slow, deliberate sweep of the powerful tail driving a body specialized for stealth, speed ...
Evolution
Jan 28, 2026
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140
RIKEN researchers have discovered how right-handed molecules in our cells can give rise to cells that are not symmetrical about their central axes. This discovery is a key step toward determining why most of our organs lack ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 22, 2025
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