Evolution, as a scientific topic, encompasses the study of heritable change in populations of organisms over successive generations, driven primarily by mechanisms such as mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow, and recombination. It investigates how genetic variation arises and is differentially propagated, leading to adaptation, speciation, and macroevolutionary patterns observable in phylogenies and the fossil record. Research in this area integrates population genetics, comparative genomics, quantitative genetics, and developmental biology to elucidate processes shaping genetic architecture, fitness landscapes, and phenotypic diversity, as well as the tempo and mode of evolutionary change across different ecological and genomic contexts.
As global warming accelerates, extreme heat waves are causing widespread death of tropical reef corals. Most corals rely on tiny algae cells living within their tissues that photosynthesize and produce energy. Corals use ...
Ecology
Apr 25, 2026
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15
Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with international partners, have uncovered new insights into how apples became the fruits we know today, showing that their evolution has been shaped by continuous exchange ...
Evolution
Apr 22, 2026
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Why are flowers so different from one another? Much of the answer lies with pollinators: Their preferences and morphologies have helped generate an exceptional diversity of flowers in terms of shape, size, color and scent, ...
Evolution
Apr 20, 2026
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102
A new study on climate adaptation in the Pacific pocket mouse—North America's most endangered mouse has been published in Science Advances. The research highlights a major challenge for endangered species, as many lack the ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 17, 2026
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20
In the largest genomic mapping of Africa's elephants to date, an international team of researchers shows that elephant history is defined by the ability to move across large distances and exchange genes throughout the African ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 16, 2026
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95
A massive study of ancient DNA from nearly 16,000 people across more than 10,000 years in West Eurasia reveals that natural selection has shaped modern human genomes far more than previously thought.
Evolution
Apr 15, 2026
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226
It has long been known that environmental conditions can shape how traits are inherited, a phenomenon known as transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. However, the molecular signals responsible for encoding this biological ...
Evolution
Apr 13, 2026
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11
Evolution works over millennia. Climate change is moving far faster. That mismatch is killing some of the planet's most vital ecosystems, from California's towering redwoods to the seagrass meadows along its coast, both of ...
Ecology
Apr 10, 2026
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24
A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, finds that changes in animal development induced by climate shock persist generations after the initial event. The escalating effects of climate change are likely to, in effect, ...
Evolution
Apr 8, 2026
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149
Why do some species live for only weeks while others survive for centuries? Researchers at the Leibniz Institute on Aging—Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena have developed AEGIS, a freely available software tool that enables ...
Evolution
Apr 1, 2026
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24
