14 July 2023
Llamas are able to learn from other llamas and even more effectively from humans, possibly because thousands of years of domestication gave them the ability to read human social cues
12 July 2023
A handful of “rules” govern how evolution shapes life on Earth, from island gigantism to colours shifting with latitude – and offer clues about how animals and plants might adapt to a warming world
19 June 2023
Sara Imari Walker, who developed Assembly Theory with chemist Lee Cronin, explains how the theory's definition of life might help us find it on other planets
15 June 2023
Most modern plants grow leaves in a pattern that follows the Fibonacci sequence, but a reconstruction of a 400-million-year-old plant reveals that its leaves grew much more chaotically
7 June 2023
Primitive steroids found in ancient Australian rocks may have been made by the earliest complex cells before they evolved into animals, plants, fungi and algae
7 June 2023
Masturbation in male primates seems to have evolved to boost reproductive success and cut the chance of getting a sexually transmitted infection, but the picture isn’t so clear for females
17 May 2023
An argument that has been raging among biologists for over a decade – whether comb jellies or sponges were the first group to split off from the common ancestor of all animals – has a new twist, thanks to an analysis of genetic patterns
15 May 2023
Many researchers thought butterflies first evolved in Asia, but a global genetic analysis suggests they arose in North America, well before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct
6 May 2023
Why some people evolved the ability to digest milk in adulthood hasn't been clear, but the extra calories that young children got may have been key
3 May 2023
Domestic cats are a paradox, argues biologist Jonathan B. Losos in a book that delves into their origins and the emerging science of feline behaviour
