We like to think that all creatures play a role in the local ecosystem. We’re especially interested in insects that provide a benefit for people too. But that’s not always how it is.
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Articles on Evolution
Displaying 401 - 420 of 998 articles
Understanding the evolutionary roots of what draws us to delusions of legacy and distractions of leisure will help us address the environmental challenges of the 21st century.
Tickling is an important sign that someone – or something – is touching you. An expert explains how it works.
The story of Australia has been studied and explored many times by researchers. Look what they’ve revealed, so far.
The discovery of a living coelacanth fish rocked the world in 1939, as scientists thought they had died out with the dinosaurs. A new study illuminates how its skull and tiny brain develop.
You may think that your milk-drinking, ice cream-licking days are behind you as you battle the discomfort of lactose intolerance. But there maybe be a way to reverse the situation.
Human changes to the living world have benefited us, but the ecological consequences are mounting.
It was not until the late 1990s that the anatomy of the human clitoris was accurately described by Australia’s first female urologist. And now research in animals is starting to catch up.
Ever heard of lexical selection? Every time you open your mouth you change the way future generations will talk.
Our flippered friends evolved from small, hooved deer-like creatures more than 50m years ago.
The evolution of live birth from egg-laying is no mean feat. Now new research reports on the first known example where both eggs and a live birth come from the same lizard pregnancy.
The short answer is we have evolved to have nails because they help us pick things up (like food) and pick things off (like bugs).
A series of new studies sheds light on the population crash and extinction of the giant birds, lemurs and more that roamed the island until around A.D. 700-1000.
Teeth covered in pits were common in the 2m-year-old species Paranthropus robustus.
The largest of these frogs could sit happily on your thumbnail. The smallest is just longer than a grain of rice.
Exceptionally well preserved 500m year old fossils show Cambrian seas were more diverse than scientists had thought.
Sometimes, two different animals will evolve to have a similar adaptation, even when they are not closely related. Flight is an excellent example.
Using the family relationships between single-celled protists alive today, researchers hypothesized what their evolutionary ancestors looked like – and then looked in the fossil record for matches.
Biologists investigated whether birds that search for multiple mates would evolve ever more elaborate songs to attract them. What they found might have surprised Darwin.
Modern animals took over our planet much more quickly than previously thought. This has both welcome and disturbing implications for the future of life on our rapidly changing planet
Top contributors
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Strategic Professor in Palaeontology, Flinders University
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Scientia Professor of Evolutionary Ecology; Academic Lead of UNSW's Grand Challenges Program, UNSW Sydney
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Professor in Evolutionary Biology (jointly appointed with South Australian Museum), Flinders University
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Honorary Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney
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Senior Lecturer in Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences at the University of Bath, University of Bath
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Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath
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Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Monash University
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Senior Researcher in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Adjunct Research Associate, Monash University
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Jenny Graves is a Friend of The Conversation.
Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Vice Chancellor's Fellow, La Trobe University
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Principal Lecturer in Wildlife Conservation, Nottingham Trent University
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Mark Elgar is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor of Evolutionary Biology, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Natural Sciences, UCL
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Senior lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, University of Bristol
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Evolutionary Ecology, Griffith University
