Evolution News

October 7, 2023

Top Headlines

Ginger Pigment Molecules Found in Fossil Frogs

Oct. 6, 2023 — Palaeontologists discover molecular evidence of phaeomelanin, the pigment that produces ginger coloration. Phaeomelanin is now toxic to animals – this discovery may be first step in understand its ...

The End of Genes: Routine Test Reveals Unique Divergence in Genetic Code

Oct. 5, 2023 — Scientists testing a new method of sequencing single cells have unexpectedly changed our understanding of the rules of genetics. The genome of a protist has revealed a seemingly unique divergence in the DNA code signalling the end of a gene, ...

Survival of the Newest: The Mammals That Survive Mass Extinctions Aren't as 'Boring' as Scientists Thought

Oct. 5, 2023 — For decades, scientists have assumed that mammals and their relatives that survived challenging times (like those during mass extinctions) made it because they were generalists that were able to eat ...

Genome Study Reveals 30 Years of Darwin's Finch Evolution

Sep. 29, 2023 — An international team of researchers has released a landmark study on contemporary evolutionary change in natural populations. Their study uses one of the largest genomic datasets ever produced for animals in their natural environment, comprising ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:11pm EDT

Insights Into Early Snake Evolution Through Brain Analysis

Sep. 29, 2023 — Recent study sheds new light on the enigmatic early evolution of snakes by examining an unexpected source: their brains. The results emphasize the significance of studying both the soft parts of ...

Did Animal Evolution Begin With a Predatory Lifestyle?

Sep. 29, 2023 — Surprising findings on the development of sea anemones suggest that a predatory lifestyle molded their evolution and had a significant impact on the origin of their nervous system. The researchers ...

A Turtle Time Capsule: DNA Found in Ancient Shell

Sep. 28, 2023 — Paleontologists discover possible DNA remains in fossil turtle that lived 6 million years ago in Panama, where continents ...

Probing the Deep Genetic Structure of Africa

Sep. 22, 2023 — Using ancestry decomposition techniques an international research team has revealed a deeply divergent ancestry among admixed populations from the Angolan Namib desert. This unique genetic heritage ...

Dinosaur Feathers Reveal Traces of Ancient Proteins

Sep. 21, 2023 — Palaeontologists have discovered X-ray evidence of proteins in fossil feathers that sheds new light on feather ...

Slow Growth in Crocodile Ancestors Pre-Dated Their Semi-Aquatic Lifestyle

Sep. 20, 2023 — A groundbreaking study is reshaping our understanding of crocodile evolution by pinpointing the onset of slow growth rates to the Late Triassic period, much earlier than the previously assumed Early ...

Prehistoric Fish Fills 100 Million Year Gap in Evolution of the Skull

Sep. 20, 2023 — X-rays of an ancient jawless fish shows earliest-known example of internal cartilage skull, unlike that of any other known ...

Tiny Sea Creatures Reveal the Ancient Origins of Neurons

Sep. 19, 2023 — A new study sheds new light on the origins of modern brain cells. Researchers find evidence that specialized secretory cells found in placozoans, tiny sea creatures the size of a grain of sand, have ...

RNA for the First Time Recovered from an Extinct Species

Sep. 19, 2023 — A new study shows the isolation and sequencing of more than a century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at room temperature in a museum collection. This resulted in the ...

Nature's Great Survivors: Flowering Plants Survived the Mass Extinction That Killed the Dinosaurs

Sep. 12, 2023 — A new study by researchers from the University of Bath (UK) and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico) shows that flowering plants ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

New 'Assembly Theory' Unifies Physics and Biology to Explain Evolution and Complexity

Oct. 4, 2023 — An international team of researchers has developed a new theoretical framework that bridges physics and biology to provide a unified approach for understanding how complexity and evolution emerge in ...

You Say Tomato, These Scientists Say Evolutionary Mystery

Sep. 11, 2023 — Biologists have found evidence for evolutionary 'syndromes'-- sets of traits that occur together -- that help to explain how tomatoes first evolved their distinctive blend of color, ...

'Monstrous Births' and the Making of Race in the Nineteenth-Century United States

Sep. 7, 2023 — From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, 'monstrous births' -- malformed or anomalous fetuses -- were, to Western medicine, an object of superstition. In 19th-century America, they became ...

Human Shoulders and Elbows First Evolved as Brakes for Climbing Apes

Sep. 5, 2023 — Researchers report that the flexible shoulders and elbows that allow us to throw a football or reach a high shelf may have evolved as a natural braking system that let our primate ancestors get out ...

Pioneering Research Sheds Surprising New Light on Evolution of Plant Kingdom

Sep. 5, 2023 — A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the evolution of plant biology, effectively rewriting the history of how they evolved over the past billion ...

Mutation Rates in Whales Are Much Higher Than Previously Reported

Aug. 31, 2023 — An international team of marine scientists has studied the DNA of family groups from four different whale species to estimate their mutation rates. Using the newly determined rates, the group found ...

Algae Provide Clues About 600 Million Years of Plant Evolution

Aug. 30, 2023 — Researchers generated large scale gene expression data to investigate the molecular networks that operate in one of the closest algal relatives of land plants, a humble single-celled alga called ...

Three-Eyed Distant Relative of Insects and Crustaceans Reveals Amazing Detail of Early Animal Evolution

Aug. 29, 2023 — Scientists use cutting edge scanning technology to reconstruct 'fossil monster' that lived half a billion years ago. The creature's soft anatomy was well-preserved, allowing it to be ...

Natural Selection Can Slow Evolution, Maintain Similarities Across Generations

Aug. 23, 2023 — New research suggests that natural selection, famous for rewarding advantageous differences in organisms, can also preserve similarities. The researchers worked with a plant called wild radish and ...

The Modern Sea Spider Had Started to Diversify by the Jurassic, Study Finds

Aug. 17, 2023 — An extremely rare collection of 160-million-year-old sea spider fossils from Southern France are closely related to living species, unlike older fossils of their ...

Iceman Ötzi: Dark Skin, Bald Head, Anatolian Ancestry

Aug. 16, 2023 — A research team has used advanced sequencing technology to analyze Ötzi's genome to obtain a more accurate picture of the Iceman's appearance and genetic ...

Study Explains How Part of the Nucleolus Evolved

Aug. 15, 2023 — Biologists discovered that a scaffolding protein called TCOF1 is responsible for the formation of a biomolecular condensate called the fibrillar center, which forms within the cell ...

Elephant Ancestors´ Teeth Evolved in Response to Long Term Changes in Diet and Climate in Africa

Aug. 14, 2023 — A new study shows that the cheek teeth of proboscideans (elephants and their ancient relatives) evolved in response to dietary changes due to vegetation changes and climate change in East Africa ...

Evolving Elegance: Scientists Connect Beauty and Safeguarding in Ammonoid Shells

Aug. 11, 2023 — With 350 million years of evolution culminating in almost two centuries of scientific discourse, a new hypothesis emerges. Researchers propose a new explanation for why ammonoids evolved a highly ...

The Oldest and Fastest Evolving Moss in the World Might Not Survive Climate Change

Aug. 9, 2023 — A 390-million-year-old moss called Takakia lives in some of Earth's most remote places, including the icy cliffs of the Tibetan Plateau. In a decade-long project, a team of scientists climbed ...

The History and Future of Ancient Einkorn Wheat Is Written in Its Genes

Aug. 2, 2023 — Researchers have sequenced the complete genome for einkorn wheat, the world's first domesticated crop and traced its evolutionary history. The information will help researchers identify genetic ...

Oldest Known Species of Swimming Jellyfish Identified

Aug. 1, 2023 — Royal Ontario Museum announces the oldest swimming jellyfish in the fossil record with the newly named Burgessomedusa phasmiformis. This 505-million-year-old swimming jellyfish from the Burgess Shale ...

Scientists Uncover a Surprising Connection Between Number Theory and Evolutionary Genetics

Aug. 1, 2023 — An interdisciplinary team of mathematicians, engineers, physicists, and medical scientists has uncovered an unexpected link between pure mathematics and genetics, that reveals key insights into the ...

Bees Evolved from Ancient Supercontinent, Diversified Faster Than Suspected

July 31, 2023 — The origin of bees is tens of millions of years older than most previous estimates, a new study shows. A team led by Washington State University researchers traced the bee genealogy back more than ...

New Insights Into the Origin of the Indo-European Languages

July 27, 2023 — An international team of linguists and geneticists has achieved a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the origins of Indo-European, a family of languages spoken by nearly half of the ...

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