evolution

What usually happens when you cut up a piece of fruit to eat or to put in a salad? If it is an apple, a pear,...

Butterflies are the exhibitionists of the insect world. For many invertebrates, camouflage is the best defence against predators, so how do brightly coloured butterflies protect themselves?...

Around 3,500 years ago the earliest ancestors of many Pacific people and Māori – the people provisionally named Lapita – appeared in Oceania. Records of the...

One of New Zealand’s iconic moa species was almost wiped out during the last ice age according to recently published research. DNA from ancient eastern moa...

This Connected article, written by Matt Boucher, looks at why our wildlife is so distinct and how the species developed and adapted to their current state....

This Connected article by Sophie Fern covers the discovery of Squawkzilla – a giant parrot that lived in New Zealand 19 million years ago. Two leg...

This Connected article by Priscilla Wehi and Hemi Whaanga explores how early Māori named and grouped the plants and animals they found around them. Discover what...

Our planet has life on it, and for that reason, it may be unique in the universe. Ironically enough, we know much more about some of...

In 1880, Alice McKenzie saw a large blue bird in a remote part of Fiordland. Alice and her family made careful observations of the bird and...

An inquiry approach is often recommended for science education. It supports student-directed learning and can enhance engagement because students pursue questions and lines of inquiry that...

In any one species, there is a large amount of genetic variation. The survival of a species is often linked with the extent of genetic variation...

Population biology is a field of study that explores populations and how they interact with their environment. Scientists observe all factors influencing a population within an...

Scientifically, takahē have been something of a mystery. For several decades, it was assumed that takahē were extinct in both the North and South Islands –...

Takahē (Porphyrio hochstetteri) once lived throughout the South Island. Their original habitats were the bushy edges of lowland swamps and rivers. Today’s remnant takahē population lives...

New Zealand plants are unique! New Zealand has some of the oldest primeval forests in the world, the largest type of moss and some of the...

An inquiry approach is a method often used in science education. The question bank provides an initial list of questions about measuring the age of rocks...

New Zealand’s little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii) population in 2013 numbered around 1,600. They are vulnerable to disease and other environmental stresses according to a genetic...

School science is engaging when it makes connections to students’ everyday lives (Osborne & Collins, 2001) and when they have an opportunity to experience physical phenomena...

A team of fossil hunters has discovered that one of the largest known dinosaurs, a titanosaurid, almost certainly roamed New Zealand about 80 million years ago....

Dinosaur footprints, thought to be about 70 million years old, have been discovered by a geologist working in the north-west Nelson region. The discovery of the...

Genomics has opened up our understanding of ancient hominins and human evolution. Genomics is an area within genetics that concerns the sequencing and analysis of an...

Fossilised dung (coprolites) from kākāpō in a cave in the South Island has revealed an unexpected and hitherto unknown relationship between three of the country’s most...

Island gigantism is a phenomenon sometimes seen in animal evolution in such species as the Komodo dragon, Madagascar’s extinct elephant bird and New Zealand’s extinct moa....

Mapping the whole genome of the sheep (Ovis aries) was completed in 2014. The information is contributing to a myriad of new research projects to improve...