Evolution is often perceived as an incredibly slow, natural process driven by environmental pressures over millennia. That characterization certainly holds true, but humans have also repeatedly ...

Since the Middle Ages, the size of wild and domestic animals has largely been shaped by human selection: domestic animals are increasingly larger; wild animals increasingly smaller. During the 7,000 ...

Lyudmila Trut, who has died aged 90, was a Soviet scientist and lead researcher on the silver fox domestication study, one of the most significant biology experiments of the 20th century, compressing ...

"Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs-they are ...

Over time, the general size of animals changes. That's a normal part of evolution. Sometimes, environmental factors may cause a species to grow smaller; a century later, the animals' descendants might ...

A series of whole genome and gene duplication events that go back hundreds of millions of years have laid the foundations for tissue-specific gene expression, according to a new study. The 'copy-paste ...

Dogs are not our nearest relatives in the animal kingdom, but they are our oldest friends. Scientific evidence suggests that, at least 10,000 years ago, early humans gradually domesticated wild dogs, ...

In 1881, zoologist John Murdoch took part in an expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska, at the northernmost tip of the US. The goal was to conduct a two-year, unbroken observation of meteorological and ...

Big, soulful eyes, a wagging tail, and playful cuddles are a pet parent’s ultimate weakness. These heartwarming traits are not by chance: Shaped by domestication, these behavioral and anatomical ...

Many domestic animals can prosper in the wild despite having adapted to thousands of years in captivity. This phenomenon offers an interesting window into the process of adaptation to natural ...

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment. Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the ...