Primates are an order (Primates) of eutherian mammals characterized by a suite of derived traits associated with arboreal locomotion and enhanced sensory and cognitive capacities. Defining features include grasping extremities with opposable thumbs and, in many taxa, opposable great toes; nails instead of claws on most digits; a postorbital bar or plate; forward-facing orbits enabling stereoscopic vision; and a relatively enlarged brain, especially in regions mediating vision and complex behavior. The order encompasses strepsirrhines (lemurs, lorises), tarsiers, and haplorhine simians (monkeys and apes, including humans), and is a core model group in evolutionary biology, comparative anatomy, neurobiology, and behavioral ecology.
A newly discovered fossil site in southwest China has transformed our understanding of how complex animal life emerged on Earth, revealing that many key animal groups had already evolved before the start of the Cambrian Period. ...
Evolution
Apr 2, 2026
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Some pathogens use temperature as a trigger and activate virulence only after entering the warmer environment of a host. A research team from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and the University of Münster, Germany, investigated ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 2, 2026
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Understanding how genes are switched on and off in specific cell types remains one of biology's central challenges. While AI has made major progress in decoding the regulatory logic of DNA, applying these approaches across ...
Biotechnology
Apr 2, 2026
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In a new study, Northwestern University neurobiologists discovered that gut bacteria and the nose work together to shape social behavior in mice, including who fights and who backs down. Using a combination of genetic and ...
Ecology
Mar 30, 2026
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440
WEHI researchers have led a major global effort to create the first authoritative atlas for a class of enzymes that regulate almost every cellular process in the human body. Published in Cell, the study establishes the first ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 28, 2026
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152
Some of the signs of aging in human cells originate in the cell nucleus, because the packaged form of DNA changes with age. This has now been demonstrated by PSI researchers. It means that older cells can no longer react ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 26, 2026
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110
In the intricate machinery of the inner ear, hearing begins with a protein that moves a few billionths of a meter up to 100,000 times per second. That protein, called TMC1, sits at the tips of sensory hair cells deep in the ...
Evolution
Mar 25, 2026
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As bees and hummingbirds flit from flower to flower, greedily sipping nectar in exchange for pollination, the animals often get another treat: alcohol. In the first broad analysis of the alcohol content of flower nectars, ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 25, 2026
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In a rare occurrence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, twin mountain gorillas were recently born in the Virunga National Park, renowned for its biodiversity but threatened by conflict.
Plants & Animals
Mar 25, 2026
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In February 2023, a resident at Kyoto University's Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior—EHUB—treated researchers to a spontaneous musical performance. Ayumu, a 26-year-old male chimpanzee, removed floorboards ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 25, 2026
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