natural selection
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These Male Spiders Evolved a Post-Sex Catapult to Escape Cannibalistic Females
Researchers in China have described yet another freaky sex habit of spiders (as if there weren’t enough already): Some male spiders launch themselves at great speed off their cannibalistic female partners, to avoid being eaten after copulating. The way they make their egress is similar to the mechanism at play in catapults, according to the…
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A Single Winter Storm Forced These Lizards To Start Evolving Practically Overnight
We typically think of evolution as an agonisingly gradual process, but there are occasions when nature compels species to move at a quicker pace. By studying a population of lizards both before and after a particularly severe cold snap, scientists have documented natural selection in fast motion, where the surviving reptiles — after just a…