Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last few months (and even caves have wi-fi now surely?), you’ll have noticed that it’s Darwin’s bicentennial on February 12. To celebrate, I will be posting a series of eight consecutive articles, each one focusing on a different aspect of evolutionary biology.

As per usual, each one focuses on a single research paper. Four are reposts drawn from the old site and four will be fresh posts based on papers that have come out just this week.

It’s my way of marking the occasion without too much hyperbole or melodrama. The point is that 150 years later, scientists are still constantly discovering examples that beautifully illustrate