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.
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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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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105
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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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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171
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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199
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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19
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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