The Critically Endangered Raso lark (Alauda razae) lives on a single desert island of 7 km2 in the Cape Verdes off West Africa. Happily, the birds have undergone a remarkable boom over the past decade, according to a paper published online this week in Animal Conservation.

Research published in the journal Nature reveals for the first time how a famous extinct animal, the early four-legged vertebrate (tetrapod) called Ichthyostega, moved on land.

Many congratulations to Claire Spottiswoode, who has been awarded one of this year's four L'Oreal "Women in Science" Fellowships for her work on the genetics of mimicry in Cuckoo eggs.

New research raises questions about the theory that modern humans and Neanderthals at some point interbred, known as hybridisation. The findings of a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge suggests that common ancestry, not hybridisation, better explains the average 1-4 per cent DNA that those of European and...