Leopard DNA study in South Africa traces ancestry to ice age — and will guide conservation

New research has found South African leopards originated from two unique clades in southern and central Africa approximately 0.8 million …

Climate shift may have sparked warm-blooded evolution in dinosaurs 180 million years ago

Warming climate could have prompted ecological changes, leading some species to develop a faster metabolism — a trait shared by modern day …

Elephant teeth: How they evolved to cope with climate change-driven dietary shifts

20 million years ago, proboscidean teeth looked completely different

They sense electric fields, tolerate snow and have ‘mating trains’: 4 reasons echidnas really are remarkable

Echidnas are even more mysterious and unusual than commonly assumed.

The Anthropocene is a nuclear epoch – so how can we survive it?

This year saw nuclear weapons tested, stockpiles renewed, and disasters remembered

Giant sea lizards: Fossils in Morocco reveal astounding diversity of marine life 66 mn years ago

Far from declining at the end of the Cretaceous, marine reptiles — especially mosasaurs — evolved to become increasingly diverse

It’s reassuring to think humans are evolution’s ultimate destination – but research shows we may be an accident

Modern biologists agree most complex organisms have become more complex over the last 4 billion years, disagree over the process that accounts …

Semantics of Anthropocene: Have humans really formed a new era

The Earth will hardly notice when we humans are gone, just as it hardly knew we were here

What would happen if humans had flat feet?

The transversal arch, absent in modern-day gorillas and chimpanzees, developed in humans around 3.4 million year ago

New study adds to calls for formal recognition of Himalayan wolf

The research, conducted by British and Nepalese researchers, confirms that the proposed Himalayan wolf is an ancient wolf lineage, has developed …

Galapagos giant tortoises make a comeback, thanks to innovative conservation strategies

The Galapagos Islands' giant tortoises are one of the world's best examples of evolution. Scientists are pioneering new conservation strategies …

Greenland fossil find may force rethink on origin of life

Discovered four years ago, the finds were not publicised at that time as geologists led by Allen P Nutman of the University of Wollongong in …

Making sex count

In the annals of modern medicine, medical research experiments have always been sexist. The tide is finally turning

Sunscreen or camouflage? Why so many animals have dark backs and pale bellies

It is one of the most controversial questions in nature. Now a group of British researchers have shed light on the answer

Why did primates evolve such big brains? First study of its kind says it wasn’t for finding food

Perhaps it has to do with memory

It’s a myth that male animals are usually larger than females — new study

Male-biased size dimorphism was found in only 28% of 429 mammal species examined

Neanderthals died out 40,000 years ago, but there has never been more of their DNA on Earth

Many Europeans and Asians have between 1% and 4% Neanderthal DNA while African people south of the Sahara have almost zero

Thick ones, pointy ones – how albatross beaks evolved to match their prey

Beak size, shape varied between albatross species, making it a useful tool for identifying species that otherwise look similar

Did life evolve more than once? Researchers are closing in on an answer

Has all of life on Earth evolved only once, or are different living beings cut from different cloths? 

Following Alfred Russel Wallace’s footsteps to Borneo, where he penned his pioneering evolution paper

Wallace, born 200 years ago on January 8, wrote the Sarawak Law paper in a remote jungle far from anyone and anything back in 1855

Climate change effect: Northern climes no longer safe haven for migratory animals

The population of migratory species declines as moving to the north proves to be less beneficial and potentially dangerous

When did humans first go to war?

Although the first modern Europeans may have been the first humans capable of organised warfare, we can’t say this behaviour was …

How did elephants evolve such a large brain? Climate change is part of the answer

The evolutionary history of elephants is interesting. It parallels humans’ in many ways

From Neptune's blue hue to Jupiter's red spot: are the colours of the planets real?

Many images of planets have been manipulated. So have we seen their true colours? Not always, it turns out.

Even platypuses aren’t safe from bushfires — a new DNA study tracks their disappearance

Platypuses are disappearing from waterways after fire