Woodrats lost their ability to eat toxic creosote bushes after antibiotics killed their gut microbes. Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with…

A new paper in Astrobiology says we will need to look to oceans to find life on Earth-like planets. Most computer simulations of habitable climates on Earth-like planets have focused on their…

The relics of ancient viruses preserved in the genomes of 38 mammal species have provided insight into cancer’s ‘footprint’ on our evolution. Viral relics are evidence of the ancient battles our…

Evidence from human famines and animal studies suggests that starvation can affect the health of descendants of famished individuals, but how such an acquired trait might be transmitted from one…

What 'separates us from the animals'. as the saying goes? Not a lot. We're all animals, of course, but among primates there is an easy-to-spot difference: Humans tend to walk in lateral…

Recent re-examination of a 100,000 year old early human skull using micro-CT scans has revealed the interior configuration of a temporal bone thought to occur only in Neanderthals. The…

Evolutionary adaptations have allowed Tibetans to have no trouble living at 13,000 feet, but how they became able to conquer the harsh environment of hypoxia has long been a mystery. Genetic studies…

A small tree or shrub found in mountainous Central and South American rainforests has a most unusual relationship with the birds that pollinate its flowers, according to a new study - the plant known…

Many traits unique to humans are thought to have originated in the genus Homo between 2.4 and 1.8 million years ago in Africa. What are the evolutionary factors that drove them? A large brain, long…

The dominant hypothesis for the reason that northern Europeans developed light skin is that they needed to absorb more ultraviolet (UV) light to make more vitamin D, which is vital for healthy bones…