Biological evolution is the heritable change in characteristics of biological populations over successive generations, driven by mechanisms such as mutation, recombination, genetic drift, gene flow, and natural and sexual selection. It operates through changes in allele frequencies within gene pools, constrained and shaped by developmental, physiological, and ecological contexts. Evolutionary processes generate adaptation, diversification, and extinction, producing hierarchical patterns from microevolutionary shifts within populations to macroevolutionary dynamics among lineages. At the molecular level, evolution involves sequence variation, genomic rearrangements, and changes in gene regulation, which collectively underlie phenotypic diversity and the emergence of complex biological organization.
The problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has many health experts worried. As disease-causing bacteria adapt to some of our ways to reduce them, especially with antibiotics, it presents an arms race which we appear to ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 26, 2026
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A study of wild African herbivores offers new insight into how environmental conditions—not just diet and anatomy—can influence the evolution of gut microbes that play a critical role in animal health and well-being.
Evolution
Jan 26, 2026
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The diversity of water strider species apparently developed as early as the Cretaceous period, much earlier than previously thought. SNSB researchers have succeeded in clarifying the phylogenetic history of this insect family, ...
Evolution
Jan 22, 2026
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Cities are known to shape the evolution of wildlife within them, but according to a study of European cities published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, this is not a one-off event. Rather ...
An international team of researchers, with the involvement of the UAB, has conducted a study that explains the evolutionary origins of the Dehnel phenomenon, a unique seasonal adaptation in small mammals that involves the ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 15, 2026
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Evolutionarily speaking, the ultimate goal of a lifeform is to reproduce and stave off extinction. Many plants and animals have evolved unique tricks to do so. One of these tricks is mimicry, which might be used to trick ...
Our bones did not begin deep inside the body. They started in the skin, not long after the first complex animals took shape.
Evolution
Jan 13, 2026
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102
Homosexual behavior in primates has a deep evolutionary basis and is more likely to occur in species that live in harsh environments, are hunted by predators or live in more complex societies, scientists said Monday.
Plants & Animals
Jan 12, 2026
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The conservation of genome regulatory elements over long periods of evolution is not limited to vertebrates, as previously thought, but also in echinoderms (invertebrates). This is one of the most notable conclusions of a ...
Evolution
Jan 8, 2026
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Scientists at Nagoya University in Japan have identified the genes that allow an organism to switch between living as single cells and forming multicellular structures. This ability to alternate between life forms provides ...
Evolution
Jan 7, 2026
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