Exceptionally preserved fossils from China reveal that bryozoans were already thriving during the Cambrian explosion.

In the 1960s, Kimura’s neutral theory revolutionized molecular biology by arguing most DNA changes are random, not adaptive. A new study finds beneficial mutations are far more common than Kimura’s ...

A major research study is challenging one of evolution’s most influential ideas: that most genetic changes that become permanent are essentially neutral. Researchers at the University of Michigan ...

We've been looking at nature the wrong way, argues Rowan Hooper. If we stop focusing on the individual, we get a whole new picture of how life on Earth – and elsewhere – may have begun ...

The theory of evolution by natural selection was first formulated in Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species” in 1859. It describes how organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable ...

During California’s worst dry spell in the past 1,200 years, some populations of wildflowers defied the odds to survive the ordeal. Researchers say they now believe these flowers relied on a type of ...

Even Charles Darwin was puzzled by the evolution of the vertebrate eye. New research suggests that it traces back to a cyclopean invertebrate with a single eye atop the head. By Carl Zimmer Look at ...

The world is full of theories of everything. The smartphone theory of everything argues that our personal devices are responsible for the rise of political polarization, anxiety, depression, and ...

Dark-eyed junco songbirds have been serenading the University of California, Los Angeles campus for decades as they forage for food. The species from the sparrow family is not usually found in cities.

A major evolutionary theory says most genetic changes don’t really matter, but new evidence suggests that’s not true. Researchers found that helpful mutations happen surprisingly often. The twist is ...