Evolutionary Biology

Scientists are racing to solve the enduring mystery of how a large, dangerous carnivore evolved into a playful companion

The brown thornbill scares away its attacker by pretending an even bigger bird is nearby

A cat expert fields a host of questions from cat owners

Healthy ants wanted nothing to do with free-radical-rich foodstuff, but ants exposed to a pathogenic fungus sought it out, which upped their odds of survival. Christopher Intagliata reports

Pyrenees fossils suggest the Montsechia lived up to 130 million years ago and is the earliest known example of a fully submerged aquatic flowering plant

The largest invertebrate genetic code unleashes clues to camouflage, suckers, evolution

A single-point mutation in corn's ancestor teosinte got rid of the hard shell that used to encase every kernel 

A new technique for finding and characterizing microbes has boosted the number of known bacteria by almost 50 percent, revealing a hidden world all around us.

One sexually transmitted virus seems to cut HIV death rates

A new effort to bring global cohesion to origins of life science launches, and with it a fresh look at how to crack one of the greatest existential questions.

Microbes 2,500 meters below the seafloor in Japan are most closely related to bacterial groups that thrive in forest soils on land, suggesting that they might be descendants of ones that survived when their terrestrial habitat was flooded 20 million years ago

To a tiny worm called a nematode, slugs may be the ultimate sexy ride: moist, secure, and maybe even pre-loaded with snacks.