Why Are Humans The Only Animals That Cook Their Food? An Evolutionary Biologist Explains
The human ability to cook may seem ordinary, but it marks one of the most important evolutionary turning…
Greater trophic diversity of soil animal communities under agricultural land use and tropical climate
Anthony, M. A., Bender, S. F. & van der Heijden, M. G. A. Enumerating soil biodiversity. Proc. Natl…
Secrets of evolution found in ancient plant DNA
The Takeaway CSHL Professor & HHMI Investigator Zachary Lippman and colleagues have identified more than 2.3 million conserved…
Marine protected areas marginally offset anthropogenic declines in tropical reef fish contributions to nature and people
Carson, R. Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1962). Hallmann, C. A. et al. More than 75 percent decline over…
Human pressure and biodiversity modify forest resilience after extreme multi-year droughts
Seidl, R. et al. Forest disturbances under climate change. Nat. Clim. Change 7, 395–402 (2017). Article Google Scholar …
Neanderthal Men and Homo Sapiens Women
Image via Wiki Commons. We now know that humans and Neanderthals interbred several times across thousands of years.…
Eliminating invasive predators | Nature Ecology & Evolution
Russell, J. C. Trends Ecol. Evol. 40, 1051–1053 (2025). Article PubMed Google Scholar Baeckens, S. & Van Damme,…
A Newly Discovered Giant Virus Found in a Pond Is Blurring the Line Between Life and Non-Life
Scientists in Japan have identified a previously unknown giant virus in a freshwater pond near Tokyo, and its…
Did Humans Nearly Go Extinct 900,000 Years Ago? A Biologist Explains
At some point in the deep past, humans may have come frighteningly close to disappearing altogether. Here’s what…
Anthropologists Still Can’t Agree On The Answer
The chin is one of our most familiar features, yet scientists still debate why we evolved it. Here’s…
Meet The Squirrel That Turns Off Its Brain For 8 Months Every Year — A Biologist Explains
The Arctic ground squirrel survives conditions that would cause irreparable brain damage in almost any other mammal on…
Meet The Silver-Backed Chevrotain — A Mouse-Deer That Vanished For 25 Years, Rediscovered By A Camera Trap
Once written off as extinct, the silver-backed chevrotain forces scientists to confront how much of biodiversity still lives…