In natural populations, the mechanisms of evolution do not act in isolation. This is crucially important to conservation geneticists, who grapple with the implications of these evolutionary processes ...

The researchers identified regions with Neandertal ancestry in over 300 individuals. They assessed sharing of segments, inferred gene flow, and looked at variation to identify candidates for positive ...

Giraffes are a beautiful and powerful example of what adaptive evolution can achieve. However, in recent years they have attained notoriety for a completely different reason: it has been suggested ...

Scientists explored the evolutionary success of leaf beetles, the most diverse herbivores on Earth. They showed that symbioses with bacteria have evolved repeatedly and independently in different ...

The recombination between parental chromosomes, a characteristic of sexual reproduction, plays a crucial role in evolution. In mammals, a protein called PRDM9 is essential for this process. In a paper ...

How do cells know what they should become as the body develops? Biological development depends crucially on spatial patterns: the lines that eventually give rise to segments, organs, or markings like ...

Two of the traits that set modern humans apart from non-human primates are taller stature and a higher basal metabolic rate. Researchers have identified a genetic variant that contributed to the ...

Secondary contact and hybridization between recently diverged taxa have been increasing due to anthropogenic changes to the environment. Determining whether secondary contact leads to gene flow ...

Data from a new study links a pair of duplicated genes to human brain features. The research provides a roadmap for scientists to gain a deeper understanding of brain function and evolution, as well ...