Fly Researchers at Duke University Find Another Layer to the Code of Life
Rare pieces of genetic code may serve as another way to control cellular machinery. A new investigation into the way different tissues read information from…
Evolution
Ancient Tooth From Young Girl Discovered in Cave Unlocks Mystery of Denisovans, a Sister Species of Modern Humans
Denisovans, a sister species of modern humans, inhabited Laos from 164,000 to 131,000 years ago with important implications for populations out of Africa and Australia….
The Origin of Life on Earth: A Paradigm Shift
According to a new theory by LMU chemists led by Thomas Carell, it was a novel molecular species composed of RNA and peptides that set…
Cockroach Courtship and Mating: Sugar Aversion Hampers Cockroach Coupling
New research from North Carolina State University (NC State) shows the behavioral mechanism behind a sweet cockroach mating ritual that takes a bitter turn, resulting…
Gene That Shapes Mutation Rate Discovered in Mice
The finding supports theory that genetic differences between individuals and species can affect the acquisition of mutations. Every organism is born with a few mutations…
How Do Genomes Evolve Between Species? The Key Role of 3D Structure in Sperm Cells
A study led by researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Kent uncovers how the genome three-dimensional structure of male…
Batesian Mimicry: These Bats Scare Off Predators by Buzzing Like Hornets
In Batesian mimicry, a harmless species imitates a more dangerous one in an evolutionary “ruse” that protects the mimic from would-be predators. Now, researchers reporting…
Extremophytes: “Extreme” Plants Grow Faster in the Face of Stress
When plants are faced with conditions that are too dry, salty, or cold, most of them try to conserve resources. They send out fewer leaves…
Overlooked “Jurassic Park of Lizards” Discovered by Researchers
Scientists have found that a key modern group of reptiles that includes lizards and snakes – known as squamates – diverged in the Jurassic period,…
Large Bodies Helped Ancient Sea Monsters With Extremely Long Necks Swim
A new research study finds that large bodies helped extinct marine reptiles with long necks swim. According to new research findings from scientists at the…
Variations in Climate Don’t Drive Evolutionary Change As Much as Previously Thought
Combining climate change records over the last 3.5 million years with fossil evidence of mammals in Africa revealed that times of erratic climate change are…
Humans Disrupting 66 Million-Year-Old Fundamental Feature of Ecosystems – “This Hasn’t Happened Before”
Diet-size relationship found across deep time, multiple vertebrate groups. According to a new study, the U-shaped association between diet and size in modern land mammals…
Over 5,500 New Viruses Identified in the Ocean – Including a Missing Link in Viral Evolution
An analysis of the genetic material in the ocean has identified thousands of previously unknown RNA viruses and doubled the number of phyla, or biological…
Scientists Crack Egg Forging Evolutionary Scandal Two Million Years in the Making
While many people around the world just finished unwrapping their Easter eggs, scientists have solved one of nature’s biggest criminal cases, an egg forgery scandal…
Diverse Life Forms Evolved 3.75 Billion Years Ago – Challenging the Conventional View of When Life Began
Diverse life forms may have evolved earlier than previously thought. Diverse microbial life existed on Earth at least 3.75 billion years ago, suggests a new…
Peering Into the Inner Workings of Evolution With Jellyfish Eyes
Some jellyfish have simple eyes; some have complex ones. Other jellyfish have no eyes at all. Indeed, recent research has shown jellyfish eyes in different…
East Asian Lineages in Europe 45,000 Years Ago Explained by Population Hub Out of Africa
The ancient human remains unearthed in the Bacho Kiro cave (in present-day Bulgaria) and recently genetically described were surprisingly reported to be more closely related…
Brawn Before Brains: Mammals Bulked Up To Survive Post-Dinosaur World
Prehistoric mammals bulked up, rather than develop bigger brains, to boost their survival chances once dinosaurs had become extinct, research suggests. For the first 10…
