Dogs have been called man's best friend for several centuries and it is not uncommon to read about the stereotype benefits on health and well-being attributed to their companionship. Their presence in a home has been associated with longevity, less loneliness, better adaptation to living... click to read more

As evolutionary scientists, we see a paradox when we compare short-term ("ecological") and long-term ("geological") observations of evolutionary rates. When we look at adaptation to contemporary changes in environment, rapid evolutionary responses seem to be the norm. However, when examining body evolution in the fossil... click to read more

Roughly speaking, our bodies use energy from the sun, but we can't use sunlight directly. Instead, plants and algae collect sunlight and store it as chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis. We can access that fuel directly when we eat plants, or indirectly when... click to read more

There is a tremendous interest in the dinosaurs that ruled the Earth during the Mesozoic Era, or the Age of Dinosaurs, but what about our mammalian ancestors that were alive at the same time? Tiny mammals lived amongst the dinosaurs for over 100 million years;... click to read more

Our group together with an international team of scientists successfully recovered and analyzed ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies dating from approximately 1400 BC to 400 AD, establishing ancient Egyptian mummies as a reliable source for genetic material to study the ancient past. The study, published... click to read more