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 ...

Why do you have five fingers? Why not ten, or twenty, or one? Why do so many animals have five fingers? Five seems to be the perfect number for most hands. Oddly, the first vertebrates to come onto ...

What is a vertebrate?. Vertebrates in context ; What makes a vertebrate? ; Breaking branches ; Summary -- Shaking the tree. Embranchements and transformation ; Evolution and ancestors ; Summary -- ...

“The more species of Homo there were, the higher the rate of speciation. So when those niches got filled, something drove even more species to emerge. This is almost unparalleled in evolutionary ...