Dinosaurs may have 'flashed' each other with their bottoms, newly discovered fossil shows

A reconstruction of a dinosaur's back passage reveals it may have been used for visual communication.

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evolution dinosaurs paleontology social-communication paleolithic reconstruction

Spitting cobras may have evolved unique venom to defend from ancient humans

A toxin unique to spitting cobras means their venom causes more pain than other snakes.

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evolution animals venomous-snakes

Starfish: rare fossil helps answer the mystery of how they evolved arms

New study sheds light on how the starfish evolved.

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evolution fossils animals starfish

Parasites: what causes some species to evolve to exploit others

Even the most mutually-beneficial evolutionary relationship can turn sour.

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evolution animal-behaviour parasites parasitism cleaner-fish

Vampire finches: how little birds in the Galápagos evolved to drink blood

Finches have evolved to feed off blood from red-footed and Nazca boobies – and we've seen it first-hand.

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evolution birds natural-selection mutualism darwins-finches parasitism galapagos

What you need to know about the new COVID-19 variants

A biologist who studies the evolution of diseases explains what's different about the two new virus strains that have been found recently, and what that means for vaccine effectiveness.

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evolution covid-19 coronavirus vaccines mutation

Vampire finches: how little birds in the Galápagos got a taste for big bird blood

Finches have evolved to feed off blood from red-footed and Nazca boobies – and we've seen it first-hand.

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evolution birds natural-selection mutualism darwins-finches parasitism galapagos

Dire wolves went extinct 13,000 years ago but thanks to new genetic analysis their true story can now be told

Our research shows dire wolves lived in the tropics not the Arctic, and were not especially close relatives of the grey wolf.

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evolution megafaunal-extinction wolves evolutionary-genetics extinct-species

Crocodiles today look the same as they did 200 million years ago – our study explains why

New research shows crocodiles have landed upon an equilibrium state of evolution.

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evolution dinosaurs fossils animals crocodiles

A tropical fish evolved to endure rising temperatures – but it may not be fast enough to survive climate change

Species can evolve to tolerate higher temperatures – but there's a ceiling beyond which adaptation isn't possible.

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evolution climate-change global-warming zebrafish tropical-fish climate-change-adaptation heatwave rising-temperatures