Bacteria that live in the digestive tracts of animals may influence the adaptive trajectories of their hosts.

The largest study to date of the animals’ genetics provides robust evidence that they are adapting to survive a highly lethal, contagious cancer scientists feared would cause their extinction.

In the 20th century, animals such as mules and ligers that had parents of different species were considered biological flukes, but genetic sequencing is beginning to unravel the critical role of hybridization in evolution.

An island songbird evolved into five populations of different color variants despite inhabiting territories just 10 kilometers apart.

The study of evolution requires consideration of organisms’ microbiomes.

The findings of a new study contradict previous results from some of the same scientists that suggested Neanderthal DNA was gradually removed from modern human genomes.

Urban environments are driving genetic changes in resident species through multiple mechanisms, from establishing gene flow barriers to exerting novel selection pressures.

The pelvic bones of women have been shaped more by random evolution than by natural selection, a new study finds.

A study of five far-flung human populations gives clues to adaptations to environmental pressures.

The turtle-headed sea snake is losing its stripes, and researchers suggest that the change reflects adaptation to fouled oceans.

Natural selection may be behind the dearth of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans.

Some thoughts on going to the Galápagos

The emergence of blood abnormalities, an adult ability to digest milk, and changes in our physical appearance point to the continued evolution of the human race.

Meet some of the people featured in the January 2016 issue of The Scientist.

John Henry Holland, who developed genetic algorithms, has passed away. He was 86.

Andean communities may have evolved the ability to metabolize arsenic, a trait that could be the first documented example of a toxic substance acting as an agent of natural selection in humans.

Ocean animals have been getting bigger over the millennia, according to an analysis of thousands of genera that have plied Earth’s seas since the Cambrian Period.

An online reconstruction makes the library from Darwin’s famed ship more accessible. 

Humans evolved the ability to walk on two legs because it allowed them to more accurately size up prospective mates. Or did they?