Q: Why do we humans have a hard time understanding, and sometimes accepting, evolution? What, in your opinion, is the major stumbling block? A: Deep time is hard to grasp. I don't know that it or any ...

Scientists explored the evolutionary success of leaf beetles, the most diverse herbivores on Earth. They showed that symbioses with bacteria have evolved repeatedly and independently in different ...

The intersection of human evolution and Earth’s environmental history brings together two areas of scientific study with exceptionally high public visibility and broad societal interest—human ...

Researchers have shown how laboratory evolution can give rise to highly efficient enzymes for new-to-nature reactions, opening the door for novel and more environmentally friendly ways to make drugs ...

South Africa has one of the world’s richest fossil records of hominins (humans and their fossil ancestors). But many misconceptions still exist regarding human evolution, and school textbooks contain ...

The title to this website is quite the enigma, as “understanding evolution” seems to simultaneously be both an easy task and an impossible undertaking. Indeed, there is a difference between grasping ...

On a recent summer evening, my wife was busy page-turning our copy of the weekly New Yorker magazine. Like many of us, the cartoons were the main attraction with occasional stops at articles that ...

Life changes over time. Of course, it does. We know this thanks to a wealth of converging evidence in the form of millions of fossils, clear genetic clues, and observations made out in the field and ...

A new study shows how the virus that causes COVID-19 is related to the virus that caused the SARS outbreak of 2003. The new family tree of these viruses could help predict which viruses circulating in ...

Evolution is perhaps the most extraordinary story ever told—a tale spanning billions of years that connects every living thing on Earth through an intricate web of shared ancestry. From the tiniest ...

A new SwRI-led paper highlights the scientific progress made in understanding the evolution of terrestrial planets, including the effects of late large impacts on pre-existing modes of tectonics. For ...