In most developing tissues, signals called morphogens act like lighthouses, guiding nearby cells toward their fate and ...

New research challenges the long-standing idea that most fixed genetic mutations are neutral. For many years, scientists studying evolution have believed that most genetic changes influencing how ...

Animals from completely different branches of the tree of life, such as insects, worms and vertebrates, independently evolved ...

For more than half a century, many biologists have leaned on the neutral theory of molecular evolution to explain how DNA and ...

The frozen remains of a juvenile woolly mammoth named Yuka preserved details about the animal’s last moments alive ...

There is a good chance that many of you watching right now have a dog somewhere nearby. But what do you actually know about where dogs come from? You're probably aware they evolved from wolves, but ...

Ancient snakes once possessed four limbs, but evolution dramatically reshaped them. A genetic 'switch' called the ZRS ...

How is skeletal evolution studied? Morphological alterations that contribute to human skeletal structure have been extensively studied in paleoanthropology. Aside from standing height, it has been ...

At the mercy of natural selection since the dawn of life, our ancestors adapted, mated and died, passing on tiny genetic mutations that eventually made humans what we are today. But evolution isn't ...

Rosie McCall is a London-based freelance writer who frequently contributes to Discover Magazine, specializing in science, health, and the environment. View Full Profile. (Image Credit: ...

Recent research has unveiled an unexpected link between the ancient human exposure to lead and the evolutionary development ...