New Insight Into the Evolution of Sight From 54 Million Year-Old Fossil
Fossilized flies that lived 54 million years ago have revealed a surprising twist to the tale of how insects’ eyes evolved. These craneflies, unveiled in…
Evolution
New Snake Research Yields Insights on Reptile Evolution
New research on a garden-variety snake in Alberta provides an unprecedented look at how their skulls develop—and may offer new clues into how reptiles…
Drying, Less Predictable Climate May Have Spurred Human Evolution
A progressively drying climate punctuated by variable wetter episodes may have precipitated the transition from our hominin ancestors to anatomically modern humans, according to research…
Scientists Discover Oldest Directly Dated Homo Sapiens Fossil Outside of Africa
The first Homo sapiens fossil discovery from Saudi Arabia dates to 90,000 years ago during a time when the region’s deserts were replaced by grasslands….
Scientists Reveal the Complex Story Behind the Beaker Phenomenon
In the largest study of ancient DNA ever conducted, an international team of scientists has revealed the complex story behind one of the defining periods…
Interdisciplinary Approach to Human Evolution Yields New Insights
The evolution of human biology should be considered part and parcel with the evolution of humanity itself, proposes Nicole Creanza, assistant professor of biological sciences….
Asteroid Remnants Can Help Explain How Life on Earth Began
In popular culture, asteroids play the role of apocalyptic threat, get blamed for wiping out the dinosaurs – and offer an extraterrestrial source for mineral…
Molecular Dating Traces Cockroach History Back to Last Supercontinent
Cockroaches are so hardy, a popular joke goes, that they’ve occupied the Earth long before humans first appeared —and will probably even outlast us long…
Quantum Chemistry Solves Amino Acid Mystery
Using quantum chemical methods, a team of researchers led by Dr. Matthias Granold and Professor Bernd Moosmann of the Institute of Pathobiochemistry at Johannes Gutenberg…
Yale Study Shows Geoengineering the Climate Could Have Dangerous Consequences
One of the scientific tools being considered to reduce the impacts of climate change is solar geoengineering, or the injection of aerosols into the atmosphere…
Newly Discovered Dinosaur (Mansourasaurus shahinae) Links Africa and Europe
When it comes to the final days of the dinosaurs, Africa is something of a blank page. Fossils found in Africa from the Late Cretaceous,…
Scientists Reveal the Evolution of Modern Human Brain Shape
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reveal how and when the typical globular brain shape of modern humans evolved….
New Approach to Studying Biomarkers Helped Solve 500-Million-Year-Old Mystery
A postgraduate student of the Faculty of Geology of MSU, working with an international scientific group, participated in chemical analysis of biomarkers — compounds that…
Small Adaptations in Stress Activated Proteins Could Explain Longer Lifespan
Researchers at Newcastle University show that a collection of small adaptations in proteins that respond to stress, accumulated over millennia of human history, could help…
Chemists Reveal New Theory For How Life On Earth May Have Begun
Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a fascinating new theory for how life on Earth may have begun. Their experiments, described today…
Researchers Discover First-Known Hybrid Bird Species from the Amazon
In a newly published study, a team of University of Toronto Scarborough researchers have described the first known hybrid bird species to be found in…
Yale Scientists Show Small Differences in the Evolution of Human Brain
The most dramatic divergence between humans and other primates can be found in the brain, the primary organ that gives our species its identity. However,…
New Research Suggests Human Evolution Was Uneven and Punctuated
New research shows that Neanderthals survived at least 3,000 years longer than we thought in Southern Iberia long after they had died out everywhere else….