A major evolutionary theory says most genetic changes don’t really matter, but new evidence suggests that’s not true. Researchers found that helpful mutations happen surprisingly often. The twist is ...

Tiny genetic variations between humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans might not be all they were cracked up to be.

Evolution is slow, but with the right experimental set-up—and enough time to spare—you can watch nature do its methodical ...

Woodrats weigh less than half a pound but can survive venomous rattlesnake bites that would hospitalize, or even kill, a full ...

Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe. Using advanced analysis based ...

The present theory offers a unified solution to three closely related evolutionary problems. (1) Why does an evolving population explore only a small fraction of the accessible pathways in genotype ...

Genetic researcher Nathan Clark spoke about research his team at the University of Pittsburgh conducted on evolutionary genetics. The seminars are hosted weekly by the University of Wisconsin Genetics ...

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution generated scientific debate and discussion not only in Darwin's own time, but for decades afterward. In the latter part of the nineteenth century and the until the ...

In five cases where vertebrates evolved monogamy, the same changes in gene expression occurred each time. In many non-monogamous species, females provide all or most of the offspring care. In ...

How did horses become some of the greatest athletes in the animal kingdom? Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine may have found the answer, pinpointing a genetic mutation and evolutionary process that ...