MIT Study Suggests Complex Life on Earth Began 2.33 Billion Years Ago
In a newly published study scientists from MIT reveal evidence that eukaryotes — the domain of life comprising animals, plants, and protists — were present…
evolution
Scientists Reveal Catalog of Human Genetic Variation
Newly published research details the effects of human genetic variation, finding that each person possesses on average about 150 variants capable of disabling genes. A…
Scientists Discover A New Species of Hominin
An international team of scientists has discovered a new species of a new species of hominin in South Africa that may have existed alongside modern…
Fossils Reveal Dogs Evolved as the Climate Changed
A new study from Brown University shows how dogs evolved in response to changes in climate over the last 40 million years, demonstrating that predators…
How Birds Got Their Beaks
In a new study evolutionary biologists reveal that bird beaks are the result of skeletal changes controlled by two genetic pathways, shedding light on the…
New Research Sheds Light on the Evolutionary Path That Enabled Life on Earth
A new study from the University of British Columbia reveals that the early loss of radioactive heat-producing elements such as uranium and potassium helped put…
New Evolution Study Reveals Massive Genome Shift
By applying the latest tools of genome sequencing and analysis to preserved evidence from experiments carried out at Notre Dame in the 1990s, a new…
A New Timetable of Evolution – Reappraisal of Hydrocarbon Biomarkers in Archean Rocks
New data show that the first single-celled organisms with a nucleus originated more than a billion years later than biogeochemical evidence had previously indicated. Contaminated…
New Evidence on the Origins of Life on Earth
Two newly published studies reveal evidence for how the genetic code developed in two distinct stages to help primordial chemicals evolve into cells. Chapel Hill,…
Gene Expression Evolves Best Under a House-of-Cards Model
Using sophisticated modeling of genomic data from diverse species, scientists from Yale University have answered a longstanding question about which competing model of evolution works…
Scientists Replicate the Molecular Processes That Led from Dinosaur Snouts to Bird Beaks
Researchers have conducted the first successful reversion of a bird’s skull features, replicating ancestral molecular development to transform chicken embryos in a laboratory into specimens…
New Conifer Study Illustrates Twists of Evolution
A new study from Brown University examines a specialized pollination mechanism in conifers whose traits are linked through function but not development, exploring how integration…
Isotopic Evidence Shows Life Could Have Flourished on Earth 3.2 Billion Years Ago
New research from the University of Washington found evidence that life was pulling nitrogen out of the air and converting it into a form that…
Barb Geometry of Asymmetrical Feathers Sheds Light on Evolution of Flight
By taking a closer look at feathers representing the evolutionary transition from dinosaurs to modern birds, Yale researchers demonstrate a better understand of how feathers…
Scientists Discover the Greatest Absence of Evolution Ever Reported
Scientists from UCLA have discovered an organism that hasn’t evolved in more than 2 billion years. An international team of scientists has discovered the greatest…
Low Atmospheric Oxygen Levels Delayed Rise of Animals
A new study reveals that oxygen levels during the “boring billion” period were only 0.1% of what they are today, providing the first evidence that…
Research Reveals Evolution Used Similar “Toolkits” to Shape Flies, Worms, and Humans
Several newly published studies reveal that flies, worms and humans share ancient patterns of gene expression. Although separated by hundreds of millions of years of…
Theorists Show How Energy Landscapes Dominate Both Evolution and Folding of Proteins
A team of biophysicists at Rice University used computer models to show that the energy landscape involved in the long-term evolution of proteins is essentially…