Ancestry & Evolution
The desire to understand our origins is primal. By examining our DNA over successive generations through the evolutionary process of inherited characteristics of human and animal populations–as well as from those species from which humans share a common ancestry–we can decipher our individual and collective past and develop medical innovations for the future.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
‘Ancient genes’ could point to our last universal common ancestor
Around 4 billion years ago there lived a microbe called LUCA: the Last Universal Common Ancestor. ... If we trace ...
Are science and religion destined to be at ‘war’?
Religion and science are incorrectly pictured as warring belief systems ...
Why don’t humans have fur? We have theories, but no answers
Evolutionary theorists have put forth numerous hypotheses for why humans became the naked mole rats of the primate world. Did we adapt ...
Computer scientists turn to evolutionary biology for inspiration
Creationists love to insist that evolution had to assemble upward of 300 amino acids in the right order to create just ...
DNA analysis shows ‘everyone had been wrong’ about mysterious Siberian unicorn
It didn't look much like the dainty unicorns of myth and legend, but the extinct unicorn of Siberia is even ...
Is evolution denial an attempt to ‘make humans special’?
Evolutionary biology has always been controversial. Not controversial among biologists, but controversial among the general public. This is largely because ...
‘Interesting puzzle’ created by hand tools found near long-vanished Arabian rivers
Nearly 200,000 years ago, at the confluence of two long-vanished river systems in the heart of Arabia, people climbed a ...
Startling discovery: Ancient mixed-race girl had Neanderthal and Denisovan parents
[T]ens of thousands of years ago, modern humans encountered Denisovans – and had sex with them. It is a startling ...
What martyred Thomas Becket and his holy lice can teach us about evolution
It’s a tale of murder, sex, and vermin. And gorillas. Reader discretion advised ...
Human, Neanderthal mating was more than just a ‘one night stand’, study suggests
Once upon a time, prehistoric humans and our ancient Neanderthal cousins met and procreated. Except, that ‘once upon a time’ ...
Why humans may not be to blame for ancient African mammal extinction
New research has disputed a longstanding view that early humans helped wipe out many of the large mammals that once ...
Why teaching evolution is still difficult in many public schools
[November 12] marked the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Epperson vs. Arkansas, which struck down the state’s ...
Why Darwin’s ‘abominable mystery’ may not be all that mysterious
For 140 years, scientists have been trying to explain what Charles Darwin described as “an abominable mystery”. Darwin was bothered by evidence ...
This tiny creature gives us a ‘completely new branch on the tree of life’
Canadian scientists have identified microscopic creatures that are so unlike anything seen before, they had to create an entirely new ...
Neanderthals and humans lived equally ‘risky, stressful lives’
Life as a Neanderthal was no picnic, but a new analysis says it was no more dangerous than what our ...
Genes and giraffes: What do those spots tell us?
Giraffes' spotty exterior provides more than camouflage ...
How DNA tests solved the mystery of this strange, now-extinct monkey
For nearly 100 years, scientists haven’t been able to agree on the evolutionary origins of a strange, now-extinct monkey that ...
Three bird species in one? Inside a warbler’s puzzling DNA
A Pennsylvania birder spotted the bird of a lifetime in his backyard this past spring—it was a hybrid of three ...
Evolved adaptation: Challenges to Darwin’s belief that mutations are random and neutral
When Charles Darwin articulated his theory of evolution by natural selection in On the Origin of Species in 1859, he ...
How plants have shaped the course of human history
Quinine (Scientific name: Cinchona) is a plant that has influenced the course of human history. Used for centuries by the indigenous ...
Resurrecting Earth’s ancient enzymes in quest to make more effective drugs and chemicals
In the 1990 Michael Crichton novel "Jurassic Park," scientists resurrect extinct species, with disastrous, page-turning consequences. But what if the ...
‘Blinding speed’: How an ice age led to the populating of the Americas
Tens of thousands of years ago, two gigantic ice sheets smothered the northernmost parts of what has since been named ...
Did Neanderthals have their own language?
Did Neanderthals have language? Before trying to answer that, I should admit my bias: I’m team Neanderthal. As an anthropologist ...
‘Deep learning’ sheds light on natural selection in human DNA
Each person’s genome contains three billion building blocks called nucleotides, and researchers must compile data from thousands of people to ...
Why we should search for alien life within our own Solar System
By examining interstellar asteroids and comets up close, argues Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, we might be able to tell whether ...
Search for extraterrestrial life could be hampered by drama surrounding NASA’s telescope dreams
For nearly 20 years, NASA has been planning and constructing a telescope unlike any ever built before: the James Webb ...
Peering back in time: Engineered synthetic organisms could help answer key evolutionary questions
Evolution is the accepted explanation for life's diversity today, but there are still some holes in the process that we ...
