Genetics

On an ordinary walk around Big Bend National Park, a park ranger and volunteer made a rare scientific discovery: an entirely new kind of plant.

This tiny, fuzzy sunflower relative has been hiding in plain sight—it represents the first new genus identified in a U.S. national park in nearly 50 years.

Scientists are studying its bowel movements, its dazzling sparkle, and its relation to us.

New research helps us understand how cattle spread across the world.

The deer of Nara Park are part of a millennium-old genetic lineage—does that make them more deserving of protection?

This fruit owes its luminous violet shade to snapdragon flower DNA.

Even actor Will Smith saw it slither through the Amazon.

The story of these distinctive doggos is emerging from ancestral knowledge of the Coast Salish peoples and a new genetic study of the pelt of a pup named Mutton.

Two geographically separate populations of cute cephalopods once mated a very long time ago.

The Utah aspen grove is one of the world's oldest and largest living things. It's finally getting its close-up.

New research complicates both modern and colonial-era ideas about the medieval East African civilization.

A surprise discovery from Haiti may finally reveal how some famous feral horses got to a distant barrier island.

Scientists' creative approach to collecting spotted skunks led to a new family tree for the handstanding li'l stinkers.

A study digs up the origin of the single species that gives us turnips, bok choy, broccoli rabe, and more.