Through genetic detective work, scientists have identified missing links in the tomato’s evolution from a wild blueberry-sized fruit in South America to the larger modern tomato of today.
Scientists don’t ask how some people evolved to be tall. In the same way, asking how homosexuality evolved is the wrong question. We need to ask how human sexuality evolved in all its forms.
A quirk of psychology that affects the way people learn from others may have helped unlock the complicated technologies and rituals that human culture hinges on.
How many genes do you really need? Are there any that we can lose? Researchers are now identifying species that have streamlined their genome to adapt to a particular lifestyle.
We know that pigs or dogs will never understand prime numbers. Some philosophers think that concepts like consciousness are similarly inaccessible to humans.
Pedro L. Godoy, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Paleontologists created an evolutionary map of how croc body size changed over the last 200 million years – with some interesting implications for today’s species.