The Avars dominated southeastern central Europe for hundreds of years, leaving one of the richest archaeological heritages in Europe. Now scientists are using DNA to reveal details of their societies.
An eastern box turtle crossing a rural Pennsylvania road.
Julian Avery
A newborn bison calf in Yellowstone National Park had to be euthanized after a visitor handled it in May 2023 – a recent example of how trying to help wild animals often harms them.
Tineola bisselliella can survive on as little as a hairball and some vitamin B.
Olaf Leillinger/Wikimedia Commons
An appreciation for the moths that chomp holes in your clothes. They eat the inedible, occupy the uninhabitable and overcome every evolutionary obstacle in their way.
Stone obelisks stand tall in Aksum, Ethiopia. This city was once the capital of a kingdom spanning northeast Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
Shutterstock / Artist
New genetic research shows humans’ famed ability to adapt our behaviour and develop new tools and techniques has not always been enough to survive when times have grown tough.
Same-sex sexual behaviour presents a paradox: it’s influenced by genes, but how and why do these genes continue to be passed down the generations? One theory is they have reproductive benefits too.
Corals in the Persian Gulf are tough - they can withstand temperatures that would kill corals elsewhere. And there’s good news: it’s easy to cross-breed their heat-tolerance genes into other corals.
Male lions are responsible for the movement of genes between prides. New research confirmed that the genes are traveling long distances – even though no one has been spotting the lions on the journey.
Gone since 1936, and ailing since long before that.
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
The new Tasmanian tiger genome reveals some fascinating facts about this extinct marsupial, including why they were so similar to dogs, and how they were growing more vulnerable to genetic disease.
As genes are favored or phased out, human evolution continues.
ktsdesign/Shutterstock.com
Comparing genomes of more than 200,000 people, researchers identified genetic variants that are less common in older people, suggesting natural selection continues to weed out disadvantageous traits.
DNA analysis reveals that there are three populations of Antarctic blue whales.
Paula Olson, courtesy of IWC
Antarctica’s blue whales all feed in the same place. But a new genetic analysis suggests they are actually three separate populations that breed in different parts of the globe.