Researchers Discover Human-Specific Gene for Building a Bigger Brain
The human brain owes its characteristic wrinkled appearance to its outer layer, the cerebral cortex. During human evolution, the neocortex, the evolutionarily youngest part of…
Evolutionary Biology
Dinosaur Egg Color Had a Single Evolutionary Origin
A new study says the colors found in modern birds’ eggs did not evolve independently, as previously thought, but evolved instead from dinosaurs. According to…
Scientists Find Evidence Of A Protein That Existed When Life Began
How did life arise on Earth? Rutgers researchers have found among the first and perhaps only hard evidence that simple protein catalysts – essential for…
Scientists Show Laziness Lead to the Extinction of Primitive Humans
New archaeological research from The Australian National University (ANU) has found that Homo erectus, an extinct species of primitive humans, went extinct in part because…
Scientists Reveal Homo Sapiens’ Secret of Success
A new study argues that the greatest defining feature of our species is not ‘symbolism’ or dramatic cognitive change, but rather its unique ecological position…
Link Between Individual Variation in Risk-Taking Behavior and Survival Revealed
For more than a century, scientists have understood that natural selection has profound effects on how an animal looks. Anole lizards that spend more time…
New Research Reveals Scale is a Key Ingredient When Tracking Biodiversity
To fully understand biodiversity and how it is changing, you need to look near, far, and in-between, according to a new study. Researchers at Yale…
Evolution of Earth’s First Animals Caused Global Warming
The evolution of Earth’s first animals more than 500 million years ago caused global warming, new research shows. Some 520-540 million years ago, animal life…
Ancient Crocodile Reveals the Humble Beginnings of the Apex Predator
The mouth of today’s crocodilians inspires fear and awe, with their wide gape and the greatest known bite force in the vertebrate animal kingdom. However,…
Earth’s First Diverse Marine Predators Produced Killer Babies
Some of the earliest predators that patrolled the oceans over 500 million years ago are also some of the largest animals to have lived at…
Mechanical Forces Can Contribute to Gene Expression During Development
During embryonic development genetic cascades control gene activity and cell differentiation. In a new publication of the journal PNAS, the team of Ulrich Technau of…
Scientists Demonstrate How Primordial Life on Earth Replicated
Scientists have created a new type of genetic replication system which demonstrates how the first life on Earth – in the form of RNA –…
Turtle and Lizard Brains Shed Light on Human Brain Evolution
Our cerebral cortex, a sheet of neurons, connections and circuits, comprises “ancient” regions such as the hippocampus and “new” areas such as the six-layered “neocortex”,…
Biologists Reveal How Marine Fish Won An Evolutionary Lottery
Most marine fish, including tuna, belong to a group called acanthomorphs, which experienced an explosion of diversity after an asteroid crash 66 million years ago….
Researchers Discover Switchblade-Like Defensive System in Stonefish
In dark alleys of the Pacific and Indian oceans, new research shows some of the deadliest, armored fishes on the planet are packing switchblades in…
Why Expressive Eyebrows Mattered in Human Evolution
New research from the University of York suggests that highly mobile eyebrows, which can be used to express a wide range of subtle emotions, may…
Scientists Identify Key Ingredients When First Organisms Appeared on Earth
Large concentrations of sulfites and bisulfites in shallow lakes may have set the stage for Earth’s first biological molecules. Around 4 billion years ago, Earth…
Whale Genome Reveals Extraordinary Evolutionary History
For the first time, scientists of the German Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center, Goethe University and the University of Lund in Sweden have deciphered…