19 March 2021
Preserved DNA from animals that lived over 2400 years ago suggests that present-day llamas and alpacas are descended in part from an extinct population of camelids called guanacos
25 March 2020
Finding out how flight evolved or animals moved onto land is all about a collision of palaeontology and genetics, argue two new books
23 January 2019
Humans once mated with Neanderthals so are we hybrids? How we see ourselves and the rest of nature is changing, raising the question of whether species even exist
24 October 2018
Two new books make big claims, but prove only that reports of the death of Darwinism have been greatly exaggerated
27 June 2018
What distinguishes a human from a virus from an inert rock? There are many definitions for what it means to be alive – and soon humanity might fail some
15 June 2018
Few living things can cope with temperatures above 100°C, but a controversial study suggests some bacterial spores can withstand 420°C heat for over 30 minutes
30 May 2018
A comparison of chimpanzee genomes has found signs that a previously unknown species of chimpanzee once lived in the forests of central Africa
24 May 2018
Some chimpanzee populations gained useful DNA from interbreeding with bonobos, and one may even have become more gentle and “bonobo-like” in its brain structure and behaviour
15 May 2018
Many scientists suspect life began with a molecule called RNA, but there has long been a big problem with this idea. Now there is a solution
7 March 2018
The discovery that some animals thrive despite hugely mutated DNA hidden in their genome is forcing us to rethink some basics of evolution
