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Ancient human genomic data from Oakhurst Rockshelter in South Africa push back the earliest reported ancient DNA from the subcontinent to the start of the Holocene, revealing surprising genetic continuity and raising questions about the nature of regional cultural change.
A long-running coevolution experiment on bacteria and yeasts shows that adaptive evolution can shift the tipping points that trigger critical transitions in a community.
An analysis of phenotypic and genomic changes that accompany the loss of sex in brown algae reveals shared features with transitions to asexuality in animals and plants.
Predictive modelling based on a global dataset reveals that atolls sustain 31.2 million breeding tropical seabirds. This vast assemblage of birds probably acts as a major nutrient pump, which highlights the need to conserve atoll ecosystems into the future.
An analysis of nearly 44,000 mutualistic, commensalistic and parasitic interactions suggests that a species’ ecological generalism results from, rather than causes, ecological success.
The genome assembly of a brittle star reveals distinctive features of genome evolution in this echinoderm lineage and enables comparisons of gene expression during appendage regeneration across distantly related animals.
An analysis of whole genomes of mothers and daughters of the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi shows non-random segregation of chromosomes during meiosis, which enables the species to maintain heterozygosity while still recombining because crossover products are faithfully coinherited.
Global biodiversity loss is showing no signs of slowing down. Two broad studies have attempted to analyse where conservation efforts have failed and succeeded, with seemingly contrasting results.
An analysis of interspecific brain–body size relationships in mammals finds they do not follow the oft-assumed power-law scaling relationship that leads to a linear relationship when both variables are log-transformed, and reveals instead a curvilinear relationship between brain size and body size.
Estimating age in clonal populations is exceedingly challenging, but a study proposes a molecular clock based on genome-wide fixed somatic variations as a solution.
Analysis of distributional data for 25,000 species challenges the assumption that species are bound to the climatic conditions that they inhabit today, and argues that many species may be able to venture into unoccupied areas of their fundamental niche.
A global survey using baited cameras on coral reefs demonstrates a near twofold increase in the relative abundance of reef sharks in marine protected areas that are also embedded within areas of effective fisheries management. However, such conservation benefits were not evident for wide-ranging sharks or rays found on the reef.
An analysis of nearly a quarter of a million forest plots finds that up to half of European forest biodiversity may be lost owing to climate change over the course of this century and provides tools to promote climate-resilient forests deep into the future.
A comparative transcriptomic analysis of eight tissue types in twenty bilaterian species reveals the long-lasting effects of genome duplication on the evolution of novel tissue-specific gene-expression patterns.
The volatile compound methyl jasmonate is emitted from plant roots and has been shown to trigger the formation of biofilms of beneficial bacteria in the rhizosphere, which suggests an active role of plants in luring microorganisms to aid them.
An analysis of publicly available viral genomes explores the evolutionary dynamics of host jumps and shows that humans are as much a source of viral spillover events to other animals as they are recipients.
Metatranscriptomic data from more than 2,000 mosquitoes of 81 species show that the composition of mosquito viral communities is determined more by host phylogeny than by climate and land-use factors, which will help to inform arbovirus surveillance.
Combining species range-shift estimates with population trends for 146 marine species reveals that population abundances tend to decline as the velocity with which the species’ range is shifting poleward increases. The findings suggest widespread transient population dynamics rather than a simple dichotomy between climate-change ‘winners’ and ‘losers’.
