Abrupt shifts in the evolution of animals—short periods of time when an organism rapidly changes size or form—have long been a challenge for theorists including Darwin. Now a newly published research ...

Polyploidy, or whole-genome duplication (WGD), is a major mechanism of genome evolution across the tree of life and is particularly prevalent in plants, where it facilitates the evolution of new ...

It’s generally believed that evolution is a gradual process that takes place over significant periods of time. When it comes to fruit flies, however, researchers have long known that their ...

Scientists have developed a theoretical model that uncovers the dual role of polyploidy -- organisms carrying extra genome copies -- in evolution. Their findings reveal that polyploidy can stabilize ...

An updated evolutionary model shows that living systems evolve in a split-and-hit-the-gas dynamic, where new lineages appear in sudden bursts rather than during a long marathon of gradual changes.

If evolution happens gradually as genetic changes are passed from one generation to the next, you’d expect the fossil record to show the transitional forms along the way. But it doesn’t always do that ...