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.
The tiny Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa) has always fascinated researchers because, according to the rules of evolution, it shouldn't have survived as a species, let alone thrive as a species for over 100,000 years. Using ...
A potted scarlet monkeyflower would die within a few days without water. But multiple natural populations of the species survived an extreme, four-year drought in California, and researchers now know why: The flowers were ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 12, 2026
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A research team led by scientists at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, has completed the most extensive genetic sequencing of a jararaca viper to date. The focus of the study was the genome of the golden lancehead ...
Evolution
Mar 11, 2026
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Long before humans cultivated crops or sailed between continents, a group of plant viruses was already evolving among wild plants in Eurasia. According to a new international study published in Plant Disease, the ancestors ...
Evolution
Mar 9, 2026
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When a species lives in two distinct types of habitats, individuals with traits better suited to each habitat will thrive and reproduce, naturally selecting descendants with those traits. But what about mobile aquatic species ...
Evolution
Mar 5, 2026
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A new study published in Science is challenging long-held assumptions about how we measure genetic risk in endangered species. Researchers analyzed whole genomes from hundreds of koalas, finding that populations previously ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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A new study suggests that decades of reported gains in crop yields from plant breeding may be significantly overstated, challenging a common method used worldwide to measure genetic progress. The international research team ...
Ecology
Mar 4, 2026
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Few pests eat away at farm profitability as much as soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Causing at least $1.5 billion in yield losses annually, it's soybean's single biggest threat. Unfortunately, soybean's most effective tool, ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 3, 2026
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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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Fish caught in the same trawl and sold under the same name may in fact have significant genetic differences. Beneath the surface of the Skagerrak lies a biological diversity that is rarely seen in fishmongers. "If management ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 26, 2026
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