Animals from completely different branches of the tree of life, such as insects, worms and vertebrates, independently evolved similar genetic solutions to survive on land, according to a new study ...

Evolution doesn't always create brighter colors or larger bodies—sometimes it favors darkness. Through a genetic trait known ...

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 ...

The ubiquitous and fascinating differences between males and females of many animal species are the developmental outcomes of sex determination in early embryos. In most vertebrates, sex determination ...

A microorganism whose evolutionary roots can be traced to the era of the first multicellular animals may provide a glimpse of how single-celled organisms made a critical evolutionary leap. In ...

By tracking neural crest cells in catshark embryos, researchers discovered that the molecular toolkit behind face-building is ...

Animal social behavior is an extremely complex phenomenon that is shaped by evolution. Animals, whether social bird species or solitary hunters, have an extremely wide range of social behaviours.

Deep within tropical forests, sloths move at a pace that seems almost frozen in time. Their slow movements, low energy use, ...

An understanding of the origin and dynamics of heritable genetic variation within classical animal breeding programs is needed to provide the context for understanding the contributions and concerns ...

Tiny British wrens on remote Scottish islands are undergoing a remarkable evolutionary transformation. Scientists have ...

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 ...

Visit NAP.edu/10766 to get more information about this book, to buy it in print, or to download it as a free PDF. With a growing human population and rising living standards, demand for animal-derived ...