Evolution
- Science
Early relatives of primates lived in the Arctic 52 million years ago
Analysis of fossilised teeth from Ellesmere Island, Canada, reveals that extinct relatives of monkeys and apes reached the Arctic during…
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Urban lizards have gene mutations that help them adapt to city life
Anole lizards living in three cities in Puerto Rico have mutations in genes linked to immune function, limb and skin…
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Diversity helped mammals survive asteroid that killed the dinosaurs
The conventional view of the age of the dinosaurs is that mammals lived in the shadows until the day the…
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Why itching can be contagious: Reflex pathway is identified in mice
Contagious itching may have evolved as a survival mechanism, such as by alerting other animals in the group that a…
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Ediacarans: Did competition kill off Earth’s mysterious first animals?
A mysterious extinction about 540 million years ago may have been caused when early animals began competing against one another…
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Kenyan chameleons evolved brighter colours after moving to Hawaii
Chameleons introduced to Hawaii in 1972 have started flaunting brighter colours, probably because they have fewer predators to hide from…
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Blind Mexican cave fish are developing cave-specific accents
The Mexican tetra has evolved to live in a number of dark caves – and now we know that the…
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Shoulder growth may slow during human development to make birth easier
CT scans of humans, chimpanzees and macaques reveal that human collarbones slow their growth rate in the final months of…
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