The study of early vertebrates provides an essential window into the evolutionary processes that shaped modern biodiversity. Fossil discoveries spanning the Silurian to Devonian periods reveal a ...

Vertebrate morphology exhibits remarkable diversity, reflecting a complex interplay of developmental processes, genetic regulation and environmental pressures. This variation arises from a combination ...

Scientists from the UAB and Iowa State University have generated the genome assemblies of two hidden-neck turtles, unpublished until now. The results, which revealed a new three-dimensional structure ...

Researchers report February 15 in the journal Cell that ancient viruses may be to thank for myelin—and, by extension, our large, complex brains. The team found that a retrovirus-derived genetic ...

In DNA, retrotransposons can move around and insert themselves into other parts of genomes with a kind of copy and paste mechanism. Most have lost this ability in humans, but they still make up a ...

Researchers at University of Tsukuba and their collaborators have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the olfactory ...

The sea lamprey, a 500-million-year-old animal with a sharp-toothed suction cup for a mouth, is the thing of nightmares. A new study from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research discovered that the ...

An international collaboration study reveals how evolution and locomotion patterns, such as bipedalism, shaped bone ...

A 410-million-year-old lungfish fossil from China reveals a key link, offering new insight into how early vertebrates ...

Our skeleton is kind of strange. Most of it forms from the same tissue that makes things like our muscle and connective tissue. The exception is a big chunk of our face, like the jaws and nasal ...

In 'water vampires,' scientists find evidence of stem cells that develop into the sympathetic nervous system. By Laura Baisas Published Apr 19, 2024 11:31 AM EDT Get the Popular Science daily ...

Vertebrates have extremely different brain sizes: even with the same body size, brain size can vary a hundredfold. As a rule, mammals and birds have the largest brains in relation to their body size, ...