Mammals, from the mighty blue whale to the tiny shrew, inhabit nearly every corner of our planet. Their remarkable adaptability to different environments has long fascinated scientists, with each species developing unique traits to survive and thrive.
Despite such vast biological diversity, it was believed until recently that the structure and function of the heart across mammals was the same. But research from my colleagues and I reveals that the human heart is an outlier, distinctly different from those of our closest relatives, the great apes, including chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas.
