Evolution

Chimpanzees have an ancient common ancestor - or genetic 'Adam' - that lived over one million years ago, according to a new paper paper in the journal Genome Research.   The research team led by…

Given its huge success in describing the natural world for the past 150 years, the theory of evolution is remarkably misunderstood. In a recent episode of the Australian series of “I’m a Celebrity…

Sometimes synonymous mutations, which do not lead to a change in the protein sequence but which may still have major negative effects on the ability of bacteria to survive, occur in DNA. New…

How much alcohol you drink and how hard it affects you are rooted in your DNA, specifically, a “lazy” variant of the Alcohol Dehydrogenase 1B (ADH1B) gene, known to regulate the activity of a key…

If you are allergic, you might need to thank a Neanderthal.  When modern humans began interbreeding with Neanderthals tens of thousands of years ago, the exchange left humans with gene…

The newly sequenced genomes of two marine worms shed light on the 570 million-year evolution of gills into the human ability to bite, chew, swallow and speak. The draft genome sequences (doi:10.1038/…

Evolution had a few more drinks once again, according to a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which wants to prompts a rethink of what it means to be an animal. Jellyfish,…

Human brains exhibit more plasticity, the tendency to be modeled by the environment, than chimpanzee brains, which may account for part of human evolution, according to a study which may provide…

Living hominoids are a group of primates that includes the small-bodied apes (the lesser apes, or gibbons and siamangs, which constitute the family Hylobatidae) and the larger-bodied great apes (…

A team of paleontologists find in a new fossil study that the extraordinary regenerative capacities of modern salamanders are likely an ancient feature of four-legged vertebrates that was…