Hybridization Leads to New Pathogen Species
A newly published study from scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg and Aarhus University in Denmark shows that new fungi,…
Evolution News
Rediscovery Sheds New Light on the Behavior of the Proboscis Anole
A team of scientists, encouraged by a handful of sightings, traveled to Mindo looking for a lizard once thought to be close to extinction –…
Female Butterflies Prefer Flashier Mates
A new study from evolutionary biologists at Yale University examined the butterfly species Bicyclus anynana and their mating patterns, finding that female butterflies of the…
Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Plants is More Widespread than Previously Thought
While studying the parasitic “corpse flower” of Southeast Asia, researchers from Harvard and Stony Brook University found that horizontal gene transfer between plants is much…
Research Shows That American Heads Are Getting Larger
New research from anthropologists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville found that white American skulls are becoming larger, taller, and narrower as seen from the…
Evolution Shapes Ecology of Dammed Connecticut Lakes
In a newly published study, Yale biologists describe how dams built 300 years ago in Colonial times fundamentally changed the structure of the alewife, the…
Tiny “Spherules” Record Precise Information About Asteroid Impacts on Earth
A new method for extracting precise information from tiny “spherules” embedded in layers of rock has allowed researchers to record precise information about asteroids impacting…
Evolutionary Changes Surrounding the NOS1 Gene
A new study from neurobiologists at Yale University examines the evolutionary changes surrounding the NOS1 gene and suggests that the same evolutionary mechanisms that may…
Blond Hair of Melanesians Evolved Differently Than Those of Europeans
A new study of the people from the Solomon Islands in Melanesia, a group of islands northeast of Australia, has shown that blond hair evolved…
Evolutionary History of Cypress Tree Reflects the Breakup of Pangaea
New research from biologists at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich examines the evolutionary history of the cypress tree, finding that their origins can be traced…
Human Evolution Still Tied to Darwinian Selection
As it turns out, even with all our medical technology and health education, we can’t outrun the findings of Charles Darwin. A study conducted by…
Examining the Genes of Stone Age Farmers
New findings from a team of Swedish-Danish evolutionary biologists show that the genetic variation of today’s Europeans was strongly affected by immigrant Stone Age farmers….
Marine Worm Thrives on Steady Diet of Deadly Poisons
If you thought living on fast-food, candy, soda and red meat was dangerous, try a diet of carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide. That’s what researchers…
Million-Year-Old Ash in South African Cave Yields Evidence of Cooking
Ash was discovered in a South African cave, and this indicates that humans were cooking with fire one million years ago. This is the earliest…
Stickleback Fish Used Pre-Existing Genes to Go from Saltwater to Freshwater Environments
New research pinpoints to certain mutations that may have helped the stickleback, a tiny armored fish, to evolve quickly between saltwater and freshwater forms. Since…
Relationships of Male Dolphins from Shark Bay Determined by Slow Swimming
In Shark Bay, Australia, the male dolphins are well known to marine biologists for their messy social entanglements. These relationships are so unique, that they’re…
Similarities Between Acorn Worm and Vertebrate Brain
A new study shows that Saccoglossus kowalevskii, a sea dwelling, bottom-feeding acorn worm, has a similarities to humans although the worms are separated from vertebrates…
Jawless Vertebrate Conodont Had Sharpest Yet Minuscule Teeth
The conodont, an extinct primitive marine vertebrate, had the sharpest teeth ever known, with tips just one-twentieth of the width of a human hair, and…