A computational method to authenticate low-coverage ancient DNA experiments shows that putative wheat sequences from 8000 years old sediments are most likely not of ancient origin.

Mineralized placental tissue from Late Byzantine Troy enables the detailed reconstruction of genomes of mixed bacterial species responsible for maternal sepsis in the ancient world.

The mouse gene Ythdc2 exemplifies an evolutionarily ancient family of crucial regulators of the transition from germline stem cell divisions to meiosis.

Experimental mapping of the joint sequence space of an ancient transcription factor (TF) and its DNA binding sites reveals that epistasis across the molecular interface permitted the evolution of a new and specific TF-DNA complex.

The dual function of an ancient prokaryotic enzyme, which is linked to specific metabolite signals, may have been the evolutionary driving force behind its dual localization in eukaryotes.

Reconstruction of great auk population dynamics suggests that hunting pressure alone could have been responsible for their extinction, demonstrating that even abundant, widespread species can be vulnerable to intense exploitation.

A comparative study of modern proteins identifies 40 fragments that may represent the observable remnants of a primordial RNA-peptide world.

Cell division by meiosis during sperm production depends on expression of an RNA-binding protein that prevents abnormal RNA-processing pathways.

DNA sequences from the Middle Pleistocene reveal that the extinct Eurasian straight-tusked elephants were closely related to today's African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in Africa.

The extinct stilt-legged equids of North America are not related to Asiatic asses or horses, but instead represent a distinct lineage outside of living equid diversity that became extinct in the terminal Pleistocene.