natural selection

Why did mammals, grasses and some other groups of organisms explode in diversity only after millions of years? The evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner plumbs the secrets of those “sleeping beauties.”

New modeling work suggests why nature is more diverse than niche-based ecological theory predicts.

Showy male competitions over mating privileges have grabbed scientists’ attention more often, but new work hints that sexual selection is also widespread among females.

The zoologist Arik Kershenbaum argues that because some evolutionary challenges are truly universal, life throughout the cosmos may share certain features.

The simple insight that most changes are random had a profound effect on genetics, evolution and ecology.

Promising efforts at disentangling the effects of genes and the environment on complicated traits may have been confounded by statistical problems.

How does evolution select the fittest “individuals” when they are ecosystems made up of hosts and their microbiomes? Biologist debate the need to revise theories.

Some species have the equivalent of many more than two sexes, but most do not. A new model suggests the reason depends on how often they mate.

How the ultra-cooperative behavior of ants, bees and other social insects could have evolved continues to challenge formal analysis. But a new theory about hedging bets against nature’s unpredictability may change the math and shift the debate.