Most of us know that as living things evolve, they take on traits that help them thrive in their home environments. But how are certain traits "chosen" for future generations, and how are others cast ...
Over the past 10,000 years, evolution in West Eurasia has selected for light skin, red hair and resistance to HIV in humans, ...
When most people think about natural selection, they imagine individuals competing with one another: The fastest animal escapes predators, the strongest plant produces more seeds, and the most ...
The common view of natural selection is based solely on the individual: A trait allows an organism to out-compete its rivals and is thus passed down to its offspring. To suggest otherwise can provoke ...
When humans started farming around 10,000 years ago, they reshaped their landscapes, diets, and social structures. A common assumption in evolutionary biology held that those cultural changes acted as ...
Between 1831 and 1836, Charles Darwin circumnavigated the globe as the naturalist for the renowned HMS Beagle. Darwin's task, as far as Britain was concerned, was to discover and describe flora and ...