Evolution

Mitochondrial DNA Of First Near Eastern Farmers Sequenced

The mitochondrial DNA of the first Near Eastern farmers has been sequenced for the first time. In the research, experts analysed samples from three sites located in the birthplace of Neolithic agricultural practices: the Middle Euphrates basin and the oasi ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 7 2014 - 11:53am

Take That, Peaceniks: Facial Shape Evolved For Violence, Not Chewing

Like with many things, a lot of variables go into evolution. Some is luck, some is necessity, some is circumstance. Over time, for example, a region of blacksmiths will grow bigger arms. It isn't an epigenetic or Lamarckian evolution event but it wil ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 9 2014 - 8:41am

Vulpes Qiuzhudingi: Was High Tibet The Cradle Of Evolution For Cold-Adapted Mammals?

For the last 2.5 million years, our planet has experienced lengthy cold cycles with brief interruptions by warm ones. During cold periods, continental-scale ice sheets blanketed large tracts of the northern hemisphere and as the climate warmed up, these c ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 10 2014 - 9:05pm

Integration Hypothesis: Humans Learned Speech From Other Primates And Songs From Birds

On the island of Java, in Indonesia, the silvery gibbon, an endangered primate, lives in the rainforests and engages in behavior that's unusual for a primate- it sings long, complicated songs, using 14 different note types, that signal territory and ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 12 2014 - 7:29pm

Fossilized 500 Million Year Old Fish Shows The Origin Of Jaws In Vertebrates

Fossilized fish specimens from the Canadian Rockies, known as Metaspriggina, dates from the Cambrian period (around 505 million years ago), shows pairs of exceptionally well-preserved arches near the front of its body. The first of these pairs, closest to ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 11 2014 - 4:39pm

Why Cattle Only Have 2 Toes- An Evolutionary Biology Story

During evolutionary diversification of vertebrate limbs, the number of toes in even-toed ungulates such as cattle and pigs was reduced and transformed into paired hooves. Scientists at the University of Basel have identified a gene regulatory switch that ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 18 2014 - 1:28pm

New Study Explains How Organs Coordinate Their Development With The Whole Body

A research group uncovered that the development of wings in fruit flies does not progress synchronously with the organism's development. Instead, it is coordinated with the whole body only at distinct 'milestones'. This study helps explain ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 22 2014 - 1:30am

Is Evolutionary History Repeatable?

Writing about the weird soft-bodied fossils found in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted that of 25 initial body plans exhibited by the fossils, all but four were quickly eliminated. If we rewound the tape, he ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 23 2014 - 7:30pm

Origin Of Life: Stanley Miller's Forgotten 1958 Experiments, Analyzed

An electric discharge experiment simulates early Earth conditions using relatively simple starting materials. The reaction is ignited by a spark, simulating lightning, which was likely very common on the early Earth. The 1958 reaction samples were analyze ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 26 2014 - 5:30am

Old World Monkey Faces:Their Dramatic Evolution To Avoid Interbreeding

Old World monkeys have undergone a remarkable evolution in facial appearance as a way of avoiding interbreeding with closely related and geographically proximate species, according to a new paper which provides best evidence to-date for the role of visual ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 26 2014 - 9:32pm