Considerable debate still exists bout the precise nature of the mechanisms involved in the process of natural selection. In 23 May Nature, Patrik Nosil and colleagues from Simon Fraser University, ...

The speedy mandibles of Strumigenys ants developed repeatedly throughout the world, explaining how evolution creates new abilities to help a species survive. Ants gather on a dewy peony bud. (Image ...

A painstaking genomic and proteomic analysis has found a new evolutionary mechanism that accounts for some of the biological complexity of human beings. The scientists who found the mechanism say it ...

The second science -- Simple selection -- The genetic and ecological context of selection -- History, chance, and necessity -- The rate of genetic deterioration -- The rate of environmental ...

When most people think about natural selection, they imagine individuals competing with one another: The fastest animal escapes predators, the strongest plant produces more seeds, and the most ...

The common view of natural selection is based solely on the individual: A trait allows an organism to out-compete its rivals and is thus passed down to its offspring. To suggest otherwise can provoke ...

Essential organs tasked with keeping us alive and reproducing – such as the heart, brain or uterus – may have evolved better protection against cancer than larger and paired organs, we have proposed.

Most of us know that as living things evolve, they take on traits that help them thrive in their home environments. But how are certain traits "chosen" for future generations, and how are others cast ...

The history and diversity of life on earth are testimony to evolutionary processes that extend back to the dawn of time. The agent of change and diversification is natural selection acting over long ...