Scientists have sequenced the genome of the ‘sacred lotus,” a finding that could reveal many secrets about aging and genetic defects. A team of 70 scientists from the U.S., China, Australia and Japan today reports having sequenced and annotated the genome of the “sacred lotus,” which is believed to have a powerful genetic system that [...]

A newly published study suggests that Europeans are closely related, finding on a genealogical level that everyone in Europe traces back to nearly the same set of ancestors only a thousand years ago. From Ireland to the Balkans, Europeans are basically one big family, closely related to one another for the past thousand years, according [...]

In a newly published study, researchers examine the mitochondrial genome diversity of 43 giant squid samples collected from across the range of the species, finding that there is only one global species of giant squid, Architeuthis. The giant squid is one of the most enigmatic animals on the planet. It is extremely rarely seen, except [...]

Geneticists at the University of Arizona have discovered an African American Y chromosome with lineage that diverged from previously known Y chromosomes about 338,000 ago, pushing back the time the last common Y chromosome ancestor lived by almost 70 percent. UA geneticists have discovered the oldest known genetic branch of the human Y chromosome – [...]

In an effort to shed new light on the evolutionary origin of the head, a newly published study looks at the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis to find out if one of the ends of the sea anemone corresponds to the head of higher animals. A research group at the Sars Center in Bergen has shed [...]

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute discovered that women prefer the smell of men who have different immune gene variants than they themselves have, cracking the olfactory code for partner selection and synthesizing the first biologically effective perfume. Individual body odor plays an important role in partner selection. Humans, mice, fish and birds, and probably [...]

Findings related to the newly discovered ‘bird-dinosaur’ Eosinopteryx suggest that the origin of flight was much more complex than previously thought. The discovery of a new bird-like dinosaur from the Jurassic period challenges widely accepted theories on the origin of flight. Co-authored by Dr Gareth Dyke, Senior Lecturer in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of [...]

Analyses of ancient DNA, which had been extracted from the leg bone of an early modern human living some 40,000 years ago near Beijing, revealed that this early modern human was related to the ancestors of many present-day Asians and Native Americans. An international team of researchers including Svante Pääbo and Qiaomei Fu of the [...]

A team of researchers examined the relationship between global climate warming and the flowering of spring plants, finding that spring plants may continue to flower earlier and earlier until they reach a point where they miss their primary pollinators. Record warmth in 2010 and 2012 resulted in similarly extraordinary spring flowering in the eastern United [...]

A newly published study led by researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found evidence that substantial gene flow between Indian populations and Australia occurred about 4,000 years ago. Australia is thought to have remained largely isolated between its initial colonization around 40,000 years ago and the arrival of Europeans in the late [...]

Genetic diversity and long periods of time are things that are crucial for evolutionary adaptation. This made scientists wonder why invasive species, lacking genetic diversity, succeed quickly. And some ecologists are beginning to think that epigenetic factors might be modifying genes while leaving the genome intact. The scientists presented their findings at a meeting of [...]

Scientists have discovered the reason why the skin on human fingers and toes shrivels up when soaked in water. Laboratory tests confirmed that wrinkly fingers improve the grip on wet or submerged objects, working away the water like rain treads in car tires. The scientists published their findings in the journal Biology Letters¹. People wrongly [...]