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.
Scientists have discovered a key biological safeguard that helps one of nature's most impressive regenerators, the planarian flatworm, correctly rebuild its organs. The new research, published in Nature Communications, illuminates ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 2, 2026
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During hibernation, brown bears spend up to six months lying almost completely still, without eating, drinking or exercising. When spring arrives, they leave their dens with their muscles largely intact.
Ecology
Mar 1, 2026
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131
Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed CellScope, a high-performance single-cell analysis framework that uses manifold fitting to analyze single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. This ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 1, 2026
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62
Fruit flies, mice, zebrafish, yeast and the tiny worm C. elegans are model organisms that have carried modern biology on their backs.
Biotechnology
Mar 1, 2026
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81
New research profiles mitochondrial circular RNAs in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) from young and old human cohorts and probes how mitochondrial circRNAs and the mitochondrial RNA-binding protein GRSF1 relate ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 28, 2026
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74
Early mammalian ancestors were nocturnal, sleeping during the day while the dinosaurs dominated the land. However, some mammalian lineages, including human ancestors, independently transitioned to diurnality (active during ...
Evolution
Feb 27, 2026
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The human genome is a rich, complex record of migration, encounters, and inheritance written over thousands of millennia. Genomic research by members of Sarah Tishkoff's lab at the University of Pennsylvania are revisiting ...
Evolution
Feb 26, 2026
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442
RIKEN researchers have discovered how an enzyme modifies gene expression by targeting certain stretches of messenger RNA (mRNA) while leaving others alone. This finding could contribute to the rational design of drugs that ...
Biotechnology
Feb 26, 2026
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18
Anyone who has seen a hummingbird poking her beak deep into a trumpet creeper blossom, or a honeyeater using its brush-tipped tongue to extract nectar from eucalyptus flowers, has witnessed something that, from a human perspective, ...
Evolution
Feb 26, 2026
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48
A new study has found that the wild can be a "death trap" for animals that are released from captivity after previously being rescued. The research, published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, involved Anglia ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 25, 2026
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