Snakes, some lizards and even a few mammals can have a venomous bite. Although these lineages split more than 300 million years ago, their venoms have evolved from the same ancestral salivary protein, reported scientists ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 22, 2021
0
350
Prehistoric footprints that have puzzled scientists since the 1970s are getting a second look: Were they left by extinct animals or by human ancestors?
Paleontology & Fossils
Dec 5, 2021
0
45
Million years of evolution have produced a dazzling variety of species, each uniquely adapted to its environment. A straightforward way to measuring biodiversity is by the number of species (taxonomic diversity). Recently, ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 24, 2021
0
4
Scientists have discovered that tiny 'microchromosomes' in birds and reptiles, initially thought to be specks of dust on the microscope slide, are linked to a spineless animal ancestor that lived 684 million years ago. They ...
Evolution
Nov 2, 2021
0
61
There are clear and enduring regional divides across Great Britain, finds an intergenerational assessment of the social mobility of British families between 1851 and 2016, carried out by University College London (UCL) researchers ...
Social Sciences
Oct 28, 2021
0
50
Scientists have shown that orangutan call signals believed to be closest to the precursors to human language, travel through forest over long distances without losing their meaning. This throws into question the accepted ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 28, 2021
2
1737
The diversity of human languages can be likened to branches on a tree. If you're reading this in English, you're on a branch that traces back to a common ancestor with Scots, which traces back to a more distant ancestor that ...
Social Sciences
Sep 10, 2021
3
1939
Plump and ponderous, tardigrades earned the nickname "water bears" when scientists first observed the 0.02-inch-long animals' distinctive lumbering gaits in the 18th century. Their dumpy plod, however, raises the question ...
General Physics
Aug 27, 2021
3
1406
Exquisitely preserved fossils left behind by creatures living more than half a billion years ago reveal in great detail identical structures that researchers have long hypothesized must have contributed to the archetypal ...
Evolution
Aug 20, 2021
0
474
The formation of hybrids—organisms obtained after crossing genetically different forms—is more widespread in nature previously thought. Usually, only closely related species can hybridize. For example, hybrids occur in ...
Evolution
Aug 19, 2021
0
172
