Origin of Life News

Posted February 20, 2011:

• Skin Color: Handy Tool for Teaching Evolution?

Posted February 17, 2011:

• Subtle Shifts, Not Major Sweeps, Drove Human Evolution

Posted February 16, 2011:

• Oldest Fossils of Large Seaweeds, Possible Animals Tell Story About Oxygen in an Ancient Ocean

Posted February 9, 2011:

• Simple Marine Worms Distantly Related to Humans

Posted February 7, 2011:

• X-Rays Reveal Hidden Leg of an Ancient Snake: New Hints on How Snakes Were Getting Legless
• Conceptualizing Cancer Cells as Ancient 'Toolkit'
• Clay-Armored Bubbles May Have Formed First Protocells: Minerals Could Have Played a Key Role in the Origins of Life

Posted February 4, 2011:

• Discovery of Jumping Gene Cluster Tangles Tree of Life

Posted February 3, 2011:

• Genetic Study Uncovers New Path to Polynesia
• Primitive Vertebrates With an Adaptive Immune System

Posted January 29, 2011:

• New Appreciation of the Ecology-Evolution Dynamic

Posted January 26, 2011:

• Genetic Archaeology Finds Parts of Human Genome More Closely Related to Orangutans Than Chimps
• Ancient Body Clock Discovered That Helps Keep All Living Things on Time
• Orangutan DNA More Diverse Than Human's, Remarkably Stable Through the Ages

Posted January 21, 2011:

• Salty Evolution: Previously Unknown Central Metabolic Pathway in Microorganisms Discovered

Posted January 10, 2011:

• Oxygen-Free Early Oceans Likely Delayed Rise of Life on Planet

Posted January 7, 2011:

• Extinct Insect Completely Reconstructed in 3-D

Posted January 6, 2011:

• Lice DNA Study Shows Humans First Wore Clothes 170,000 Years Ago

Posted January 5, 2011:

• Widespread, Persistent Oxygen-Poor Conditions in Earth's Ancient Oceans Impacted Early Evolution of Animals

Posted January 3, 2011:

• Not So Bird-Brained: 3D X-Rays Piece Together the Evolution of Flight from Fossils

Posted December 22, 2010:

• Fossil Finger Bone Yields Genome of a Previously Unknown Human Relative

Posted December 21, 2010:

• Africa Has Two Elephant Species, Genetic Analysis Confirms

Posted December 19, 2010:

• Genetic Basis of Brain Diseases: Set of Proteins Account for Over 130 Brain Diseases
• Three Billion-Year-Old Genomic Fossils Deciphered

Posted December 17, 2010:

• Rise in Oxygen Drove Evolution of Animal Life 550 Million Years Ago

Posted December 16, 2010:

• Age Doesn't Matter: New Genes Are as Essential as Ancient Ones

Posted December 8, 2010:

• Lost Civilization Under Persian Gulf?

Posted December 2, 2010:

• Heat Helped Hasten Life's Beginnings on Earth, Research Suggests

Posted November 29, 2010:

• Remarkable Preservation of African Fossils Explained

Posted November 26, 2010:

• Sewage Water Bacteria: 'Missing Link' in Early Evolution of Life on Earth?

Posted November 22, 2010:

• Researchers Kick-Start Ancient DNA

Posted November 18, 2010:

• Paleovirology Expanded: Non-Retroviral Virus Fragments Found in Animal Genomes

Posted November 16, 2010:

• Upending Conventional Wisdom, Certain Virus Families Are Ancient

Posted November 14, 2010:

• Molecular Fossil: Crystal Structure Shows How RNA, One of Biology's Oldest Catalysts, Is Made

Posted November 11, 2010:

• New Explanation for the Origin of High Species Diversity in Amazon

Posted November 10, 2010:

• Cambrian Explosion: New Timeline for Appearances of Skeletal Animals in Fossil Record

Posted November 9, 2010:

• DNA Reveals Origins of First European Farmers
• Scottish Horticulturalist Patrick Matthew Proposed More Accurate Theory of Gradual Evolution Before Charles Darwin Did, Geologist Argues

Posted November 5, 2010:

• New Statistical Model Moves Human Evolution Back Three Million Years

Posted October 28, 2010:

• Tracking Evidence of 'The Great Dying'

Posted October 27, 2010:

• New Evidence Supports 'Snowball Earth' as Trigger for Early Animal Evolution

Posted October 20, 2010:

• Energy Revolution Key to Complex Life: Depends on Mitochondria, Cells' Tiny Power Stations

Posted October 18, 2010:

• Mutation Over 100 Million Years Ago Led Flowers to Make Male and Female Parts Differently

Posted October 12, 2010:

• Rotten Experiments Help to Create Picture of Our Early Ancestors

Posted October 8, 2010:

• Plants Kick-Started Evolutionary Drama of Earth's Oxygenation

Posted October 5, 2010:

• Key Reproductive Hormone in Oldest Living Vertebrate Identified
• Novelty and Complexity Are Result of Small Evolutionary Changes

Posted October 4, 2010:

• Powerful Supercomputer Peers Into the Origin of Life

Posted September 29, 2010:

• First Genetic Evidence for Loss of Teeth in the Common Ancestor of Baleen Whales

Posted September 28, 2010:

• 19-Million-Year-Old Genomic Fossils of Hepatitis B-Like Viruses in Songbirds

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