Diets of wild orangutans are “culturally-dependent”: adult Sumatran orangutans have knowledge of around 250 edible food items, which is more than any one individual can attain without learning from other individuals.

Developmental experiments “in silico”: using computer simulations based on 12 years of observations on wild orangutans, researchers show that orangutans fail to develop “adult-like” diets if deprived of key social interactions that facilitate learning.

Deep roots of cultural inheritance: adult orangutan’s diets are the product of information that many different individuals must have discovered and learnt from each other. Humans’ capacity to accumulate broad cultural repertoires – to breadths no individual could produce alone – is potentially a capacity that evolved at least 13 million years, in our common ancestor with great apes.

A research team has created the first humanised cellular model to study GATA2 deficiency, a rare genetic disorder that predisposes individuals to severe blood conditions such as myelodysplastic syndrome and leukaemia. The study shows that, although the initial GATA2 mutation weakens haematopoietic stem cells, it is additional mutations -particularly in the SETBP1 gene- that drive disease progression. 

A new study reveals that four wild cat species living in the same rainforest habitat in Guatemala reduce competition for food by hunting in different vertical zones, some in trees and others on the ground.

Two new Cochrane reviews show strong and consistent evidence that HPV vaccines are effective in preventing cervical cancer and pre-cancerous changes, especially when given to young people before they are exposed to the virus.

Around 115 million years ago, the seas off northern Australia were home to a gigantic ancestor of Jaws. Fossils of this ancient mega-predator reveal that modern sharks experimented with enormous body sizes much earlier in their evolutionary history than previously suspected, and took the top place in oceanic food chains alongside massive marine reptiles during the Age of Dinosaurs. This study presents a new interdisciplinary analysis to reconstruct size evolution in ancient sharks.   

The green hermit hummingbird, which lives primarily in mountain forests of Central and South America, fights to win a mate. New research found that these fights have shaped the species’ evolution, yielding significant differences in bill shape for male and female green hermits.