New brain gene gives us edge over apes, study suggests
Scientists have taken a step forward in helping to solve one of life's greatest mysteries – what makes us human?
View ArticleWhy some grasses evolved a more efficient photosynthesis and others didn't
Even on the evolutionary time scale of tens of millions of years there is such a thing as being in the right shape at the right time. An anatomical difference in the ability to seize the moment,...
View ArticleThe origins of a genetic switch
Cilia, microscopic whip-like organelles that protrude from the surface of many cell types, are almost ubiquitous. They are present in all eukaryotes—organisms whose cells have a nucleus—and have...
View ArticleRevising Darwin's sinking-island theory: New study helps resolve a dispute...
The three different formations of South Pacific coral-reef islands have long fascinated geologists. Tahiti's coral forms a "fringing" reef, a shelf growing close to the island's shore. The "barrier"...
View ArticleWhen it comes to mammals, how big is too big?
(Phys.org) —Mammals vary enormously in size, from weighing less than a penny to measuring more than three school buses in length. Some groups of mammals have become very large, such as elephants and...
View ArticleStudy shows influence of temporal niches in maintaining biodiversity
By studying rapidly evolving bacteria as they diversify and compete under varying environmental conditions, researchers have shown that temporal niches are important to maintaining biodiversity in...
View ArticleHow to survive without sex: Rotifer genome reveals its strategies
How a group of animals can abandon sex, yet produce more than 460 species over evolutionary time, became a little less mysterious this week with the publication of the complete genome of a bdelloid...
View ArticleCommon genetic ancestors lived during roughly same time period
Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam—two individuals who passed down a portion of their genomes to the vast expanse of humanity—are known as our most recent common ancestors, or MRCAs. But many...
View Article'Digging up' 4-billion-year-old fossil protein structures to reveal how they...
Modern proteins exhibit an impressive degree of structural diversity, which has been well characterized, but very little is known about how and when over the course of evolution 3D protein structures...
View ArticleCoral reef fish face barriers when it comes to evolution
Nemo may have found his way home, but when it comes to evolution, he and his friends encounter a whole different set of challenges.
View ArticleExamining the source behind Sherpa mountain fitness
The Sherpa population in Tibet is world-renowned for their extraordinary high-altitude fitness, as most famously demonstrated by Tenzing Norgay's ability to conquer Mount Everest alongside Sir Edmund...
View ArticleOut of Eurasia, a great primate evolutionary bottleneck?
On the road to our modern human lineage, scientists speculate there were many twist and turns, evolutionary dead ends, and population bottlenecks along the way. But how large were population sizes of...
View ArticleScientists capture most detailed images yet of humans' tiny cellular machines
A grandfather clock is, on its surface, a simple yet elegant machine. Tall and stately, its job is to steadily tick away the time. But a look inside reveals a much more intricate dance of parts, from...
View ArticleWhy the urge to find 'Nemo' has helped fish diversify
Caring parents foster successful offspring, or so the thinking goes. But for reef fishes, such as Disney's charismatic clownfish, Nemo, the effects of parental care stretch right across evolutionary...
View Article'Sleeping dogs' threaten the genome as we age
The genomes of many organisms, humans included, are littered with repetitive sequences of DNA called retrotransposons. In a new "Perspective" in the journal Science, four biologists write that while...
View ArticleSilk-weaving ant study sees new behavior
A James Cook University Professor's study of silk-weaving ants is promising to change our understanding of how all creatures work together.
View ArticleResurrection of extinct enzymes reveals evolutionary strategy for the...
How does evolution innovate? We exist because our ancestors have had the ability to adapt successfully to changes in their environment; however, merely examining present-day organisms can limit our...
View ArticleResearch pinpoints region of plant genome where rising CO2 controls flowering...
Henry David Thoreau obsessively recorded the flowering time of plants around Concord, Mass., in the 1850s, while Japanese naturalists took keen note of the flowering time of cherry blossom trees for...
View ArticleLessons from cockroaches could inform robotics (w/ video)
Running cockroaches start to recover from being shoved sideways before their dawdling nervous system kicks in to tell their legs what to do, researchers have found. These new insights on how biological...
View ArticleSpecies without boundaries—a new way to map our origins
More than 145 years ago, Charles Darwin argued that Africa was the continent from which humans evolved in prehistory. We now know he was right.
View ArticleAncient gene network helps plants adapt to their environments
The only constant is change. In evolution, there are, however, some exceptions. While the enormous diversity of life suggests that organisms are constantly being refitted with new or modified parts,...
View ArticleGAGA may be the secret of the sexes—at least in insects
Without a way to equalize the gene expression of the two sex chromosomes—males have XY and females have XX—gender could never have evolved. Scientists are still discovering many details on how the...
View ArticleSmarter brains are blood-thirsty brains
A University of Adelaide-led project has overturned the theory that the evolution of human intelligence was simply related to the size of the brain—but rather linked more closely to the supply of blood...
View ArticleHow rattlesnakes got, and lost, their venom
Millions of years ago, as the snake family tree grew new branches, the ancestor of modern rattlesnakes was endowed with a genetic arsenal of toxic weaponry, including genes for toxins that poison the...
View ArticleNew genes linked with bigger brains identified
A number of new links between families of genes and brain size have been identified by UK scientists, opening up a whole new avenue of research to better understand brain development and diseases like...
View ArticleGenomes in flux: New study reveals hidden dynamics of bird and mammal DNA...
Evolution is often thought of as a gradual remodeling of the genome, the genetic blueprints for building an organism. But in some instance it might be more appropriate to call it an overhaul. Over the...
View ArticleIn the developing ears of opossums, echoes of evolutionary history
When we are confronted with the remarkable diversity and complexity of forms among living things—the lightweight and leathery wings of a bat, the dense networks of genes that work together to produce a...
View ArticleShedding new light on the evolution of the squid
Octopus, cuttlefish and squid are well known in the invertebrate world. With their ink-squirting decoy technique, ability to change colour, bizarre body plan and remarkable intelligence they highlight...
View ArticleResearchers find support for redistribution is a function of compassion,...
Economic redistribution has been a core political dispute around the world for centuries. And while intuitively fairness seems a natural explanation for why people support redistribution, researchers...
View ArticleMore research needed on effects of maternal stress in wild animals
If a human mother is stressed while pregnant, research shows her child is much more likely to have emotional, cognitive or even physiological problems, such as attention deficit, hyperactivity,...
View Article
