Humpback whales have been spotted fending off killer whales from attacking other species. But this kind of interspecies altruism raises an evolutionary conundrum.
Many South African teachers don’t accept the theory of evolution. They feel deeply conflicted when they have to teach it to their pupils as part of the life sciences curriculum.
Humans can more easily tolerate tumours in large or paired organs than in small, critical ones. This could be why the latter have evolved more cancer-fighting mechanisms.
The Nullarbor is an arid, treeless expanse today. But several hundred thousand years ago it was home to a menagerie of species, including two newly discovered giant cuckoo-like birds.
How new species are created is at the core of the theory of evolution. Mammals may be a good example of how sex chromosome change drove major groups apart.
To understand how some creatures evolved, you need to see how their brain developed over millions of years. That’s now possible thanks to some clever use of scanning technology.
One of the enduring controversies in evolution is why snakes evolved their long, limbless bodies. A new study suggests snakes may have lost their legs at sea, before crawling ashore.