Topic description and stories

Barbary Macaques in their natural habitat of the Atlas Mountains

Monkeys regulate metabolism to cope with environment and rigours of mating season

20 Apr 2016

The flexible physiology of Barbary macaques in responding to extreme environmental conditions of their natural habitat may help shed light on the...

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Sonic hedgehog gene provides evidence that our limbs may have evolved from sharks’ gills

19 Apr 2016

Latest analysis shows that human limbs share a genetic programme with the gills of cartilaginous fishes such as sharks and skates, providing evidence...

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Opinion: Why some humans developed a taste for milk and some didn’t

11 Mar 2016

Giles Yeo (MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit) discusses the origins of lactose intolerance.

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Filaments of Tortotubus

“A load of old rot”: fossil of oldest known land-dweller identified

02 Mar 2016

The earliest example of an organism living on land – an early type of fungus – has been identified. The organism, from 440 million years ago, likely...

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Top: Complete specimen of Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis from the early Cambrian Xiaoshiba biota of South China. Bottom: Magnification of ventral nerve cord of Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis.

520 million-year-old fossilised nervous system is most detailed example yet found

29 Feb 2016

A 520 million-year-old fossilised nervous system – so well-preserved that individually fossilised nerves are visible – is the most complete and best...

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Top: Complete specimen of Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis from the early Cambrian Xiaoshiba biota of South China. Bottom: Magnification of ventral nerve cord of Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis.

Opinion: Our 500 million-year-old nervous system fossil shines a light on animal evolution

29 Feb 2016

Javier Ortega-Hernández (Department of Zoology) discusses what the discovery of the earliest known fossilised nervous system could tell us about...

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A reed warbler feeds a cuckoo fledgling

The reed warbler and the cuckoo: an escalating game of trickery and defence

22 Feb 2016

Professor Nick Davies, who gives this week’s Darwin Lecture , has been studying reed warblers for more than 30 years – and has unlocked many of the...

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Photo of a white wolf of Canada, taken Gevaudan wolf park in Lozère

Wolf species have ‘howling dialects’

08 Feb 2016

The largest quantitative study of howling, and first to use machine learning, defines different howl types and finds that wolves use these types more...

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An Aegean wall lizard resting on a rock

Lizards camouflage themselves by choosing rocks that best match the colour of their backs

25 Jan 2016

New research shows wild Aegean wall lizards found on Greek islands choose to sit on rocks that better match their individual colouring. This improves...

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Gecko and ant

Why Spider-Man can’t exist: Geckos are ‘size limit’ for sticking to walls

18 Jan 2016

Latest research reveals why geckos are the largest animals able to scale smooth vertical walls – even larger climbers would require unmanageably...

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A range of wing patterns across Heleconius butterfly species.

Genetic ‘paint box’ shuffled between butterfly species to create new wing patterns

15 Jan 2016

Research finds independent genetic switches control different splotches of colour and pattern on Heliconius butterfly wings, and that these switches...

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Newton, Darwin, Shakespeare – and an envelope of ectoplasm: Cambridge University Library at 600

23 Dec 2015

In 2016, Cambridge University Library will celebrate 600 years as one of the world's greatest libraries with a spectacular exhibition of priceless...

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