evolutionary

The discovery highlights a growing evolutionary response: microorganisms are adapting to human pollution on a planetary scale.

Their ability to create versatile tools opened new dietary possibilities, including access to meat, turning environmental stress into an evolutionary advantage.

These early humans are thought to have lived alongside their evolutionary ancestors: a pre-human group, called australopithecines, who had larger teeth and a mix of chimpanzee and human traits.

This reinterpretation reshapes how scientists view both the evolutionary history and the complex biogeography of this remarkably successful freshwater group, she added.

The findings could help explain this long-standing enigma in evolutionary biology.