The spark that created life

Evolution by Darwinian natural selection is immensely powerful—both in nature and within laboratories. Using 'laboratory evolution', we can take an enzyme which combines random mutations and functional selection, and improve ...

Speed of animal evolution enhanced by cooperative behaviour

A study by scientists from the University of Cambridge has revealed how cooperative behaviour between insect family members changes how rapidly body size evolves – with the speed of evolution increasing when individual ...

New ancient otter species among largest ever found

Dr. Denise Su, curator and head of paleobotany and paleoecology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History was co-author on new research that described a species of otter new to science and that is among the largest otter ...

Huddled mice could change the way we think about evolution

Adapt or die. That's the reality for an animal species when it is faced with a harsh environment. Until now, many scientists have assumed that the more challenging an animal's environment, the greater the pressure to adapt ...

Bigger brains led to bigger bodies in our ancestors

New research suggests that humans became the large-brained, large-bodied animals we are today because of natural selection to increase brain size. The work, published in the journal Current Anthropology, contradicts previous ...

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