Evolution of two contagious cancers affecting Tasmanian devils underlines unpredictability of disease threat. Scientists have traced the family trees of two transmissible cancers that affect Tasmanian ...

Newswise — MOSCOW, Idaho -- May 26, 2021 -- University of Idaho researchers partnered with other scientists from the United States and Australia to study the evolution of Tasmanian devils in response ...

A lethal cancer that can hop between individual Tasmanian devils is causing rapid changes in their lifecycle, changes that may ultimately save the animal from extinction in the wild.

In the past devils would live five to six years, breeding at ages two, three and four, but with the new disease, even females who breed at two may not live long enough to rear their first litter.

A survey of the genomes of two lineages of transmissible facial cancer that threaten Tasmanian devils has illuminated the evolutionary history of these unusual pathogens. “Our analysis suggests that ...

Transmissible cancers, which occur only rarely in the animal kingdom, are spread by the transfer of living cancer cells. In the case of Tasmanian devils, the cells are transferred through biting—a ...