Origin of Life News

March 20, 2025

Top Headlines

From Dinosaurs to Birds: The Origins of Feather Formation

Mar. 20, 2025 — Feathers, essential for thermoregulation, flight, and communication in birds, originate from simple appendages known as proto-feathers, which were present in certain dinosaurs.By studying embryonic development of the chicken, researchers from the ...

Genetic Study Reveals Hidden Chapter in Human Evolution

Mar. 18, 2025 — Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the ...

'Microlightning' in Water Droplets May Have Sparked Life on Earth

Mar. 14, 2025 — A study shows that electrical charges in sprays of water can cause chemical reactions that form organic molecules from inorganic materials. The findings provide evidence that microlightning may have helped create the building blocks necessary for ...

Are Volcanoes Behind the Oxygen We Breathe?

Mar. 10, 2025 — It is widely believed that Earth's atmosphere has been rich in oxygen for about 2.5 billion years due to a relatively rapid increase in microorganisms capable of performing photosynthesis. Researchers provide a mechanism to explain precursor ...

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World's Oldest Impact Crater Found, Rewriting Earth's Ancient History

Mar. 6, 2025 — Researchers have discovered the world's oldest known meteorite impact crater, which could significantly redefine our understanding of the origins of life and how our planet was shaped. The team found ...

Giant Ice Bulldozers: How Ancient Glaciers Helped Life Evolve

Feb. 25, 2025 — New research has revealed how massive ancient glaciers acted like giant bulldozers, reshaping Earth's surface and paving the way for complex life to flourish. By chemically analyzing crystals in ...

New Study Reveals Neanderthals Experienced Population Crash 110,000 Years Ago

Feb. 25, 2025 — A new study suggests that Neanderthals experienced a dramatic loss of genetic variation during the course of their evolution, foreshadowing their ...

Research Provides New Detail on the Impact of Volcanic Activity on Early Marine Life

Feb. 24, 2025 — New analysis of ancient fossilized rocks known as stromatolites, preserved in southern Zimbabwe, suggests strong links to hydrothermal nutrient ...

Research Reveals How Earth Got Its Ice Caps

Feb. 14, 2025 — The cool conditions which have allowed ice caps to form on Earth are rare events in the planet's history and require many complex processes working at once, according to new ...

Evolution, Evolution, Evolution: How Evolution Got So Good at Evolving

Feb. 13, 2025 — The field of evolution examines how organisms adapt to their environments over generations, but what about the evolution of evolution ...

Does Planetary Evolution Favor Human-Like Life? Study Ups Odds We're Not Alone

Feb. 14, 2025 — Humanity may not be extraordinary but rather the natural evolutionary outcome for our planet and likely others, according to a new model for how ...

Ancient Egyptian Mummified Bodies Smell 'Woody,' 'Spicy' and 'Sweet'

Feb. 14, 2025 — Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies smell 'woody,' 'spicy' and 'sweet', finds a new study, revealing new details about mumification ...

Less, but More: A New Evolutionary Scenario Marked by Massive Gene Loss and Expansion

Feb. 10, 2025 — Evolution is traditionally associated with a process of increasing complexity and gaining new genes. However, the explosion of the genomic era shows ...

How Life's Building Blocks Took Shape on Early Earth: The Limits of Membraneless Polyester Protocell Formation

Feb. 6, 2025 — A recent study investigates how polyester microdroplets, potential precursors to modern cells, could form under realistic early Earth conditions. ...

Meteorite Discovery Challenges Long-Held Theories on Earth's Missing Elements

Feb. 5, 2025 — Earliest inner solar system planetesimals shaped the inventory of moderately volatile elements in terrestrial ...

Missing Link in Indo-European Languages' History Found

Feb. 5, 2025 — Where lies the origin of the Indo-European language family? Researchers contribute a new piece to this puzzle. They analyzed ancient DNA from 435 individuals from archaeological sites across Eurasia ...

New Research on Ancient Life Found in Yellowstone Hot Springs

Feb. 3, 2025 — New work offers insight into how early life adapted from a low-oxygen atmosphere to the one that exists ...

Life-Bearing Water Arrived on Earth Later Rather Than Sooner

Feb. 3, 2025 — Scientist have concluded water did not arrive as early during Earth's formation as previously thought, an insight that bears directly on the question of when life originated on the planet. The ...

Exploring Mysteries of Asteroid Bennu

Jan. 29, 2025 — Scientists found that asteroid Bennu contained a set of salty mineral deposits that formed in an exact sequence when a brine evaporated, leaving clues about the type of water that flowed billions of ...

Evolution Without Sex: How Mites Have Survived for Millions of Years

Jan. 24, 2025 — An international research team has discovered various mechanisms in asexual mites that generate genetic diversity and thus ensure ...

New Tool Enables Phylogenomic Analyses of Entire Genomes

Jan. 23, 2025 — Electrical engineers have developed a better way to perform the comparative analysis of entire genomes. This approach can be used to study relationships between different species across geological ...

Streamlining Genetic Analysis for Phylogenetic Studies

Jan. 23, 2025 — A new computational tool improves the analysis of genetic data, making it easier and faster to study the evolutionary relationships between ...

Solving the Evolutionary Puzzle of Polyploidy: How Genome Duplication Shapes Adaptation

Jan. 23, 2025 — Scientists have developed a theoretical model that uncovers the dual role of polyploidy -- organisms carrying extra genome copies -- in evolution. Their findings reveal that polyploidy can stabilize ...

Many Roads Lead To... the Embryo

Jan. 22, 2025 — Is there only one optimal configuration an organism can reach during evolution? Is there a single formula that describes the trajectory towards the optimum? And can we 'derive' it in a ...

Protein Shapes Can Help Untangle Life's Ancient History

Jan. 15, 2025 — The three-dimensional shape of a protein can be used to resolve deep, ancient evolutionary relationships in the tree of life, according to a new study. It is the first time researchers use data from ...

An Earful of Gill: Evolutionary Origin of the Mammalian Outer Ear

Jan. 9, 2025 — A recent study has uncovered the surprising evolutionary origin of the mammalian outer ear, linking it to the gills of ancient fish and marine invertebrates. The research reveals that both structures ...

Scorching Climate Drove Lampreys Apart During Cretaceous Period

Jan. 8, 2025 — A new study finds that one of the hottest periods in Earth's history may have driven lampreys apart -- genetically speaking. The work could have implications for how aquatic species respond to ...

Discovery of 'Punk' and 'Emo' Fossils Challenges Our Understanding of Ancient Molluscs

Jan. 8, 2025 — Researchers have unearthed two fossils, named Punk and Emo, revealing that ancient molluscs were more complex and adaptable than previously ...

DNA Adds New Chapter to Indonesia's Layered Human History

Jan. 7, 2025 — A new study has outlined the first genomic evidence of early migration from New Guinea into the Wallacea, an archipelago containing Timor-Leste and hundreds of inhabited eastern Indonesian ...

Earth's Air War: Explaining the Delayed Rise of Plants, Animals on Land

Jan. 7, 2025 — If you like the smell of spring roses, the sounds of summer birdsong, and the colors of fall foliage, you have the stabilization of the ozone layer to thank for it. Located in the stratosphere, where ...

Hornwort Genomes Provide Clues on How Plants Conquered the Land

Jan. 6, 2025 — Over 450 million years ago, plants began the epic transition from water to dry land. Among the first pioneers were the ancestors of humble hornworts, a group of small, unassuming plants that have ...

Revealing a Key Mechanism of Rapid Centromere Evolution

Jan. 1, 2025 — A research team has clarified a mechanism of how retrotransposons, genetic elements that can 'jump around' chromosomes and are known drivers of evolution, preferentially insert in the ...

Chart of Life Extended by Nearly 1.5 Billion Years

Dec. 19, 2024 — Fossilized skeletons and shells clearly show how evolution and extinction unfolded over the past half a billion years, but a new analysis extends the chart of life to nearly 2 billion years ago. The ...

Massive Volcanic Eruptions Did Not Cause the Extinction of Dinosaurs

Dec. 18, 2024 — While volcanism caused a temporary cold period, the effects had already worn off thousands of years before the meteorite, the ultimate cause of the dinosaur extinction event, ...