News tagged with cell evolution

Exciting discovery about the origin of humans

(PhysOrg.com) -- A major evolutionary biological study, performed partly by researchers at Uppsala University, reveals what has driven the evolution of new forms of life. The study also shows how such a complex life form ...

Biology / Evolution

created Aug 22, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (15) | comments 17 | with audio podcast

Move over, sponges: New evidence confirms Placozoans are the closest living surrogate to the ancestor of all animals

A new and comprehensive analysis confirms that the evolutionary relationships among animals are not as simple as previously thought. The traditional idea that animal evolution has followed a trajectory from ...

Biology /

created Jan 27, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 1

Evolution still scientifically stable

An international team of researchers, including Monash University biochemists, has discovered evidence at the molecular level in support of one of the key tenets of Darwin's theory of evolution.

Biology / Evolution

created Sep 14, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 13

Experiments explain why almost all multicellular organisms begin life as a single cell

Any multicellular animal, from a blue whale to a human being, poses a special difficulty for the theory of evolution. Most of the cells in its body will die without reproducing, and only a privileged few will ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 7 | 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

Star Wars-inspired bacterium provides glimpse into life

(PhysOrg.com) -- A bacterium whose name was inspired by the Star Wars films has provided new clues into the evolution of our own cells and how they came to possess the vital energy-producing units called mitochondria.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 09, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

Team shows how evolution can allow for large developmental leaps

How evolution acts to bridge the chasm between two discrete physiological states is a question that's long puzzled scientists. Most evolutionary changes, after all, happen in tiny increments: an elephant grows a little larger, ...

Biology / Evolution

created Jul 20, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1

Team makes discoveries about major event in history of complex life

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists led by Montana State University has discovered the "when" of a major event that led to the evolution of complex life on Earth.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jun 21, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Humans, sharks share immune-system feature

A central element of the immune system has remained constant through more than 400 million years of evolution, according to new research at National Jewish Health. In the September 29, 2011, online version ...

Biology / Evolution

created Sep 30, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Discovering the secret code behind photosynthesis

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have discovered that an ancient system of communication found in primitive bacteria, may also explain how plants and algae control the process of photosynthesis.

Biology /

created Feb 25, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Ancient pygmy sea cow discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery of a Middle Eocene (48.6-37.2 million years ago) sea cow fossil by McGill University professor Karen Samonds has culminated in the naming of a new species. This primitive "dugong" ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0

An answer to another of life's big questions

(PhysOrg.com) -- Monash University biochemists have found a critical piece in the evolutionary puzzle that explains how life on Earth evolved millions of centuries ago.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Feb 05, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Mexican salamander helps uncover mysteries of stem cells and evolution

Dr Andrew Johnson is speaking today at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual conference. He and his team from the University of Nottingham have been using a Mexican aquatic salamander called an axolotl to study the evolution ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jul 11, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Scientists offer new insights into early eye evolution

Scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Kewalo Marine Laboratory in Honolulu have discovered light-detecting cells in the embryo of a brachiopod, a marine invertebrate, whose organization may be similar to the primitive ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 02, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Researchers solve mystery of disappearing bird digit

Evolution adds and subtracts, and nowhere is this math more evident than in vertebrates, which are programmed to have five digits on each limb. But many species do not. Snakes, of course, have no digits, and ...

Biology / Evolution

created Sep 04, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast