When exactly this happened is still unknown, as this kind of analysis does not show when in evolutionary time the retroposons were inserted.

BBC: Australia's marsupials 'have American roots'

The evolutionary transition to full-time walking, which would have freed early humans' hands for using tools, clearly came later.

ECONOMIST: An ancient child has been discovered

"Because mutations start occurring at regular intervals in these genes as soon as a new species evolves - like the ticking of a clock - we can use them to trace the evolutionary history of a species back to its time of origin, " said Dr Hedges.

BBC: Earth AP

Two million years is a long time to be stuck in traffic, but in evolutionary terms, it's the blink of an eye.

FORBES

Though RNA editing has been observed before, in animals ranging from humans to nematode worms, this is the first time an edit has been tied to a clear evolutionary difference caused by a feature of the environment in this case ambient temperature.

ECONOMIST: A hitherto-unknown way to evolve

"For a long time, cannibalism has been known as a factor that contributes to evolutionary processes, " says lead researcher Dr Roshan Vijendravarma.

BBC: Cannibal fruit flies: Lab maggots hunt one another

The scientists stated that they had proved for the first time that changes in the body size and maturation of the fish is "an evolutionary response to over-fishing".

BBC: Fish on a trawler boat

Traditional evolutionary theory suggests that one feature -- a tail for instance -- would slowly evolve over time.

CNN: Pterodactyl fossil fills gaps in evolutionary tale