News tagged with animal evolution

Scientists lift lid on turtle evolution

The turtle is a closer relative of crocodiles and birds than of lizards and snakes, according to researchers who claim to have solved an age-old riddle in animal evolution.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Human ancestors used fire one million years ago, archaeologist find

An international team led by the University of Toronto and Hebrew University has identified the earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors. Microscopic traces of wood ash, alongside animal ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (43) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Robotic bug gets wings, sheds light on evolution of flight (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- A six-legged, 25 gram robot has been fitted with flapping wings in order to gain an insight into the evolution of early birds and insects.

Electronics / Robotics

created Oct 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Canadian scientist aims to turn chickens into dinosaurs

After years spent hunting for the buried remains of prehistoric animals, a Canadian paleontologist now plans to manipulate chicken embryos to show he can create a dinosaur.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Aug 25, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (29) | comments 33

Did climate change shape human evolution?

(Phys.org) -- As human ancestors rose on two feet in Africa and began their migrations across the world, the climate around them got warmer, and colder, wetter and drier. The plants and animals they competed ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Apr 24, 2012 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (4) | comments 17 | with audio podcast

Oxygen's challenge to early life

The conventional view of the history of the Earth is that the oceans became oxygen-rich to approximately the degree they are today in the Late Ediacaran Period (about 600 million years ago) after staying relatively ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 05, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (15) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

Researchers of microraptor shed light on ancient origin of bird flight

A joint team from the University of Kansas and Northeastern University in China says that it has settled the long-standing question of how bird flight began.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Jan 25, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Earliest animals lived in a lake environment, research shows

Evidence for life on Earth stretches back billions of years, with simple single-celled organisms like bacteria dominating the record. When multi-celled animal life appeared on the planet after 3 billion years ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Jul 27, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 3

Unexpected crustacean diversity discovered in northern freshwater ecosystems

Freshwater ecosystems in northern regions are home to significantly more species of water fleas than traditionally thought, adding to evidence that regions with vanishing waters contain unique animal life.

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New picture of ancient ocean chemistry argues for chemically layered water

A research team led by biogeochemists at the University of California, Riverside has developed a detailed and dynamic three-dimensional model of Earth's early ocean chemistry that can significantly advance ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 11, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Ancient oceans offer new insight into the origins of animal life

(PhysOrg.com) -- Analysis of a rock type found only in the world's oldest oceans has shed new light on how large animals first got a foothold on the Earth.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 09, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 1

Seed size is controlled by maternally produced small RNAs: research

Seed size is controlled by small RNA molecules inherited from a plant's mother, a discovery from scientists at The University of Texas at Austin that has implications for agriculture and understanding plant ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Lungfish provides insight to life on land

A study into the muscle development of several different fish has given insights into the genetic leap that set the scene for the evolution of hind legs in terrestrial animals. This innovation gave rise to the tetrapods—four-legged ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 04, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Unifying The Animate And The Inanimate Designs Of Nature

(PhysOrg.com) -- Living beings and inanimate phenomena may have more in common than previously thought.

Biology / Evolution

created Apr 28, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (10) | comments 4

When plants go polyploid

(PhysOrg.com) -- Plant lineages with multiple copies of their genetic information face higher extinction rates than their relatives, researchers report in Science magazine.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 8 | with audio podcast