South Africa has one of the world's richest fossil records of hominins (humans and their fossil ancestors). But many ...

Mitochondria are the body's "energy factories," and their proper function is essential for life. Inside mitochondria, a set ...

Understanding how environmental changes have modified vertebrate brains over time contributes to our knowledge of biodiversity and the evolution of behaviours in vertebrates, including humans. --- ...

Vertebrates, including humans, trace their lineage back to ancient fish that lived more than 400 million years ago during the Devonian period (419 million to 359 million years ago).

The fossil of Pikaia, a creature that lived 508 million years ago and may have been a close relative of vertebrates. Mussini et al., Current Biology 2024 ...

To answer these questions, they constructed a phylogenetic tree from 22 jawed vertebrate species and compared their RetroMyelin sequences. The analysis revealed that RetroMyelin sequences were more ...

Myelin first appeared in the tree of life around the same time as jaws, and its importance in vertebrate evolution has long been recognized, but until now, it was unclear what molecular mechanisms ...

These species represented a total of 5,400 genera of land-dwelling vertebrates. Their findings show that 73 entire genera, each representing several species, have been completely wiped out since ...

Questions about skull evolution still remain, such as the purpose of the canals seen in the fossil and why all the cartilage appears to be concentrated at the front of the fish’s skull.

In land vertebrates, which evolved from fish during the Devonian, the heart has moved further back along the body - or down from the perspective of upright humans.