Evolution

Why We Walk On Two Legs

The next time you are struggling to carry your bags home from the supermarket just remember that this could, in fact, be the reason you are able to walk upright on two legs at all! How we have evolved to walk on two legs remains a fundamental but, as yet, ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 30 2007 - 11:33pm

Denizens Of Deep Seas And Deep Time Part 2: The Coelacanth

Coelacanths are lobe-finned fish, which vary in size but can reach up to 6.4 feet in length and weigh up to 176 pounds. Scientists have inferred that they can live 80 to 100 years. Their closest living relatives are lungfish and as fossils they can be rea ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - Apr 1 2007 - 11:55am

If Dinosaurs Hadn't Gone Extinct: The Evolution Of Dinosauroids

Horizon: My Pet Dinosaur was broadcast on BBC Two on 13 March at 21:00GMT. The idea behind the program is what would have happened if the dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct? This sounds like a fantastic idea for a program and I am all for popularizing science, ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - Apr 3 2007 - 1:22pm

Bony Vertebrate Evolution: Elephant Sharks Closer To Humans Than Teleost Fish

Cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, skates, and chimaeras) are the phylogenetically oldest group of living jawed vertebrates. They are also an important outgroup for understanding the evolution of bony vertebrates such as human and teleost fishes. In a ne ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 3 2007 - 2:01pm

Prairie Road Trips, Vampire Squids And Mr. Spock

I grew up in the prairies and one of my favourite ways to relieve the boredom of long summer road trips was to examine the different bugs splattered on the windshield. I would try to figure out which bug each splatter was and I was fascinated by the ways ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - Oct 31 2007 - 12:30pm

A Prehistoric Tale Of An Italian Whale

Fossils turn up in the most unusual places. Simone Casati, an amateur paleontologist, was exploring the famed vineyards of Italian winemaker, Castello Banfi, when he came across a small piece of bone poking out of the soil. He started digging and realized ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - Apr 10 2007 - 1:14pm

Do We Need A Paradigm Change? Disputing Coevolution In Herbivorous Insects

Coleoptera (beetles) are one of the most successful groups of organisms on Earth. Their success in evolutionary terms is recognised by their extreme adaptive diversity (occupying almost every possible ecological niche) and their longevity (fossils from th ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 11 2007 - 12:10am

Did Dinosaurs Become Chickens?

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have captured and sequenced tiny pieces of collagen protein from a 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. The protein fragments—seven in all—appear to most closely match amino ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 18 2010 - 11:13am

More Flight Than Fancy?

Scientists from the universities of Exeter and Cambridge have turned a textbook example of sexual selection on its head and shown that females may be more astute at choosing a mate than previously thought. New research, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 15 2007 - 12:20am

Ancient Amphibians Evolved A Bite Before Migrating To Dry Land

Ancient aquatic amphibians developed the ability to feed on land before completing the transition to terrestrial life, researchers from Harvard University report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their work is based on anal ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 16 2007 - 6:06pm