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Birds
Latest Articles
In Birds’ Songs, Brains and Genes, He Finds Clues to Speech
The neuroscientist Erich Jarvis found that songbirds' vocal skills and humans' spoken language are both rooted in neural pathways for controlling learned movements.
A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order
Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other surprising places, that is neither regular nor random.
How Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds
Modern birds emerged in a snap of evolutionary time through a series of simple genetic changes.
As Animals Mingle, a Baffling Genetic Barrier
Despite swapping DNA through interbreeding, butterflies and other animals can maintain distinct species.
Does Competition Drive Diversity of Species?
A large new study of ovenbird lineages questions the extent to which competing species push each other to evolve.