https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In a study published in Science Advances on December 19, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators from international institutions, explored the impact of mountain building and climate cooling over 30 million years across five major mountain systems in the Northern Hemisphere and revealed that these processes are key drivers of the rich plant diversity found in Earth's alpine biome. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-mountain-climate-alpine-biodiversity-million.html Evolution Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:00:04 EST news685369104 European cuckoos lay very different eggs depending on the host species. Genetic analyses have revealed how this adaptation is inherited without leading to speciation. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-parasitic-cuckoos-lay-host-eggs.html Evolution Fri, 31 Oct 2025 13:10:13 EDT news681134632 Conifers, such as pines, spruces, and firs, produce sticky resins that protect the trees from insects and pathogens. Important components of this resin are diterpenes, special natural substances that repel bark beetles and fungi. The enzymes that produce these compounds are called diterpene synthases. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-recipe-eras-conifers-ward-enemies.html Evolution Mon, 22 Sep 2025 15:00:06 EDT news677770441 The distribution of plants has been shaped by geological and climatic changes over time through repeated migration, extinction, and adaptation to new environments. The genus Camellia, comprising over 100 species mainly in East Asia, is a representative warm-temperate tree of the Sino-Japanese Floristic Region. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-camellias-evolved-formation-japanese-archipelago.html Evolution Mon, 27 Jan 2025 09:09:04 EST news657191341 A new study led by the University of Oxford has used a modeling approach to show that it is unlikely that plants would evolve to warn other plants of impending attack. Instead of using their communication networks to transmit warning signals, the findings suggest it is more likely that plants "eavesdrop" on their neighbors. The study has been published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-eavesdroppers-altruists-underground-networks.html Evolution Wed, 22 Jan 2025 12:51:55 EST news656772707 An international team of scientists has identified fossils of snow leopards for the first time. The discovery has allowed them to trace the evolutionary history of the species during the Quaternary period and to propose how it dispersed from the Tibetan plateau to the Iberian Peninsula, far from the high and icy Himalayan mountains. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-conquest-asia-europe-leopards-ice.html Evolution Wed, 15 Jan 2025 14:00:01 EST news656156996 All multicellular organisms—from the simplest animal and plant organisms to humans—live in close association with a variety of microorganisms that colonize their tissues and form symbiotic relationships with the host. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-good-wrinkly-bacteria-host.html Evolution Thu, 31 Aug 2023 12:51:04 EDT news612705061 Molecular analysis of the eggshell structure of large flightless birds such as ostriches and emus provides new insights into how they evolved. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-eggshells-large-flightless-birds-evolved.html Evolution Tue, 31 Jan 2023 15:25:03 EST news594401101 A new study has found the distribution of females in 33 species of Australian rodents affects the evolution of testes size of males in these social species. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-females-evolution-size-australian-rodents.html Plants & Animals Wed, 04 May 2022 07:11:21 EDT news570867074 With the extinction of large, non-flying dinosaurs 66 million years ago, large herbivores were missing on Earth for the subsequent 25 million years. Since plants and herbivorous animals influence each other, the question arises whether, and how this very long absence and the later return of the so-called "megaherbivores" affected the evolution of the plant world. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-dinosaur-extinction-evolution.html Evolution Mon, 02 May 2022 13:27:09 EDT news570716826 New insight on the origins and early evolution of echinoids, a group that includes the sea urchins, the sand dollars, and their relatives, has been published today in the journal eLife. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-reconsiders-early-evolution-sea-urchins.html Evolution Tue, 22 Mar 2022 11:52:30 EDT news567168746 From toucans to hummingbirds, the varying shapes and sizes of bird beaks show evolution in action. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-evolution-tunes-birds-bill.html Plants & Animals Fri, 20 Dec 2019 07:51:17 EST news496050672 Researchers have developed a new method to retrieve hominin DNA from cave sediments—even in the absence of skeletal remains. https://phys.org/news/2017-04-dna-extinct-humans-cave-sediments.html Archaeology Thu, 27 Apr 2017 14:00:04 EDT news412488513 A little over a decade ago, prestin was found to be a key gene responsible for hearing in mammals. Prestin makes a protein found in the hair cells of the inner ear that contracts and expands rapidly to transmit signals that help the cochlea, like an antique phonograph horn, amplify sound waves to make hearing more sensitivity. https://phys.org/news/2014-08-dolphins-gene-prestin-echolocation.html Plants & Animals Fri, 01 Aug 2014 02:28:32 EDT news326078797 Mollusks have been around for so long (at least 500 million years), are so prevalent on land and in water (from backyard gardens to the deep ocean), and are so valuable to people (clam chowder, oysters on the half shell) that one might assume scientists had learned everything about them. https://phys.org/news/2011-10-mollusk-evolutionary-tree.html Evolution Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:00:09 EDT news238852046 Ant and bee colonies have long fascinated biologists because of their hierarchical social structure and the apparently altruistic behaviour of female workers in rearing the queen's young rather than reproducing themselves. In colonies headed by a single queen, this makes evolutionary sense in that the workers are as closely related to the princesses and princes they nurture as they would be to their own children. Thus the genes underlying this behaviour would be successfully transmitted through the generations due to "kin selection". https://phys.org/news/2009-03-homebody-queen-ants-family-ties.html Plants & Animals Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:49:36 EDT news157733334