Browse our latest Evolutionary Biology articles

Ruby-throated hummingbirds switch from using torpor to survive nighttime energy emergencies in the breeding season to using it to spare fat stores and gain premigratory mass in the late summer.

The invasive tick Hyalomma marginatum relies on a dual partner nutritional system to provide B vitamins and avoid nutritional deficiencies due to its exclusive blood diet.

Despite having different shapes and structures, the melanosomes (melanin-packed organelles) in bird feathers often produce thin melanin layers, giving rise to brilliant iridescence.

Wing transparency in mimetic butterflies and moths is achieved by an unexpected diversity of structural features, and both structures and light transmission properties of wings are under selection for convergence.

The local fitness landscape of an antigenic region in influenza neuraminidase was determined by combinatorial mutagenesis and next-generation sequencing.

Reconstruction of cell-type families in the purple sea urchin larva reveals unprecedented transcriptional diversity, stunning neuronal complexity and a missing link to pancreas evolution, suggesting this approach can be also used to uncover hidden cell type homologies.

Methylated CpG sites are saturated for T mutations in a sample of 390K human exomes, providing a test case for inferences about fitness effects in human genes, and insight into the interpretation of mutations as pathogenic using reference datasets.

A mathematical model provides clues as to why members of a group divide tasks between them even when specialisation reduces the performance of individuals.

Comparative studies of gene expression in the uterus during pregnancy identifies new genes important for pregnancy and associated with complications such as preterm birth.

Bacterial gut pathogens that invade into host tissues during infection can boost the spread and accumulation of plasmids over time by forming reservoirs containing these plasmids within host tissues.