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Evolution news
New study finds the malaria parasite generates genetic diversity using an evolutionary 'copy-paste' tactic
By dissecting the genetic diversity of the most deadly human malaria parasite—Plasmodium falciparum—researchers at EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have identified a mechanism of 'copy-paste' genetics ...
Evolution
3 hours ago
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Study on mating behaviors offers clues into the evolution of attraction
Sparks fly when a female nematode meets her mate in a Petri dish. Tracking him by smell, she beelines over and is pregnant within moments of physical contact. But for the hermaphroditic version of these tiny roundworms, it's ...
Evolution
5 hours ago
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Not just humans: Bees and chimps can also pass on their skills
Bumblebees and chimpanzees can learn skills from their peers so complicated that they could never have mastered them on their own, an ability previously thought to be unique to humans, two studies said on Wednesday.
Plants & Animals
Mar 6, 2024
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What makes birds so smart?
Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum explain how it is possible for the small brains of pigeons, parrots and corvids to perform equally well as those of mammals, despite their significant differences.
Plants & Animals
Mar 6, 2024
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Synthetic DNA sheds light on mysterious difference between living cells at different points in evolution
"Random DNA" is naturally active in the one-celled fungi yeast, while such DNA is turned off as its natural state in mammalian cells, despite their having a common ancestor a billion years ago and the same basic molecular ...
Evolution
Mar 6, 2024
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Revealing the evolutionary origin of genomic imprinting
Some of our genes can be expressed or silenced depending on whether we inherited them from our mother or our father. The mechanism behind this phenomenon, known as genomic imprinting, is determined by DNA modifications during ...
Evolution
Mar 6, 2024
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Study finds wild bees are developing tolerance to veterinary drugs
Stingless bees in the Colombian Andes are adapting to a derivative of the ubiquitous insecticide ivermectin, which the bees ingest along with pollen from pasture flowers, according to a new study.
Evolution
Mar 6, 2024
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Fossils of giant sea lizard with dagger-like teeth show how our oceans have fundamentally changed since the dinosaur era
Paleontologists have discovered a strange new species of marine lizard with dagger-like teeth that lived near the end of the age of dinosaurs. Their findings, published in Cretaceous Research, show a dramatically different ...
Evolution
Mar 5, 2024
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Study of slowly evolving 'living fossils' reveals key genetic insights
In 1859, Charles Darwin coined the term "living fossils" to describe organisms that show little species diversity or physical differences from their ancestors in the fossil record. In a new study, Yale researchers provide ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 4, 2024
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Modeling the origins of life: New evidence for an 'RNA World'
Charles Darwin described evolution as "descent with modification." Genetic information in the form of DNA sequences is copied and passed down from one generation to the next. But this process must also be somewhat flexible, ...
Evolution
Mar 4, 2024
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Unraveling the mystery of chiton visual systems
You'd probably walk past a chiton without even seeing it. These creatures often look like nothing more than another speck of seaweed on the crusty intertidal rocks. But it sees you. At least, if it's one of the species with ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 4, 2024
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Losing their tails provided our ape ancestors with an evolutionary advantage, but we're still paying the price
Put the word "evolution" into Google images and the results are largely variations on one theme: Ralph Zallinger's illustration, March of Progress. Running left to right, we see a chimp-like knuckle walker gradually becoming ...
Evolution
Mar 3, 2024
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Canine teeth reveal new keys to sex estimation in human populations
The Dental Anthropology Group at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has published a paper in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology on the morphological differences between ...
Evolution
Mar 1, 2024
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Shining a light on the effects of habituation and neural adaptation on the evolution of animal signals
A new paper published in The Quarterly Review of Biology examines the possible effects of two properties of receiver playing fields documented in studies of animal psychology—habituation and neural adaptation—on the efficacy ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 29, 2024
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Similar genetic elements underlie vocal learning in mammals
The vocalizations of humans, bats, whales, seals and songbirds vastly differ from each other. Humans and birds, for example, are separated by some 300 million years of evolution. But scientists studying how these animals ...
Evolution
Feb 29, 2024
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280
Unveiling rare diversity: The origin of heritable mutations in trees
What is the origin of genetic diversity in plants? Can new mutations acquired during growth be passed on to seeds? INRAE scientists, in collaboration with CIRAD and the CNRS, have used the French Guiana forest as the setting ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 29, 2024
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Bottlenecks and beehives: How an invasive bee colony defied genetic expectations
For more than a decade, invasive Asian honeybees have defied evolutionary expectations and established a thriving population in North Queensland, much to the annoyance of the honey industry and biosecurity officials.
Evolution
Feb 29, 2024
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Becoming human: An ancient genome perspective
Writing a commentary in the 50th anniversary issue of Cell, Fu Qiaomei and E. Andrew Bennett, both of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explored the ...
Evolution
Feb 29, 2024
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187
Living species of daddy longlegs has two additional sets of underdeveloped eyes as embryos
While some people may first associate daddy longlegs with, well, their long legs, researchers Guilherme Gainett and Prashant Sharma have been especially focused on the arachnids' eyes. In their paper published last week in ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 29, 2024
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Avian influenza virus is adapting to spread to marine mammals
The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 has adapted to spread between birds and marine mammals, posing an immediate threat to wildlife conservation, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, ...
Evolution
Feb 28, 2024
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Other news
Research reveals traits that make fish prey tasty to tuna
AI makes a rendezvous in space
Vitamin A may play a central role in stem cell biology and wound repair
New technique may help scientists stave off coral reef collapse
Often seen, never studied: First characterization of a key postsynaptic protein
Earth's earliest forest revealed in Somerset fossils
NASA's network of small moon-bound rovers is ready to roll
Scientists develop new machine learning method for modeling chemical reactions
What makes a pathogen antibiotic-resistant?
Dancing droplets' new spin on water harvesting
