Michael Marshall

The answer to one of the biggest questions of all

Humans didn’t start out being able to digest animal milk – but now many populations do. Why has evolution favoured tolerating dairy?

FOR the first time, we have had a detailed look at how our climate has changed throughout prehistory, thanks to a surprisingly detailed computer model. And it could shed light on how ecosystem changes shaped our evolution and intelligence

THE ancestor of all life on Earth probably preferred moderate temperatures, not scorching heat as some biologists believe. The finding could shed light on where such early organisms lived, but only if it is confirmed

A species of horned beetle has a startling secret: a gearing mechanism in its mouthparts. The beetles beat us to the invention of meshed gears, possibly by millions of years

Male chickens and cows are routinely killed soon after birth because they are not wanted, but it may be possible to prevent their embryos developing in the first place

We used to think the Amazon rainforest was virtually untouched, but it now seems to have been filled with sprawling settlements whose inhabitants shaped the land

Peacock tails are brightly coloured and highly conspicuous – but maybe not to their predators

Stretches of non-coding DNA in genes called introns could have an important survival function

Bacteria are feeding and multiplying in the severe smogs that regularly blanket Chinese cities. The microorganisms could pose a threat in themselves and may also change the composition of the haze

The events of the first 3.5 billion years of evolution are coming to light at last and they include far more drama and intrigue than we ever imagined

Ice in the Swiss Alps began to be contaminated with lead between AD 640 and 660. That suggests Europeans had begun producing large quantities of silver – releasing lead as a side-effect – 25 years earlier than we thought, which could help explain the rise of powerful towns like London

Farmed chickens could receive faecal transplants to protect against the infections that cause food poisoning in humans. A pilot study suggests the transplants are remarkably effective, and the team behind it are now trying to make it work on an industrial scale

The campaign to save the whales has made real progress in the last 30 years, with many species recovering well, and by itself Japan's hunt is unlikely to make a big difference to their populations

From the remarkably parenting skills of orangutans to the frankly bizarre thing baby sharks do inside their mothers' wombs, here is my pick of the coolest zoology stories of 2018