Related topics: species · genes · plants · evolution

Why plants worldwide became woody

Why do some plants grow into large woody shrubs or colossal trees, while others remain small and never produce wood in their stems? It's an evolutionary puzzle that baffled Charles Darwin more than 160 year ago. Now, scientists ...

Darwin's giant daisies help researchers understand evolution

Naturalists Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin both presented the theory of evolution at the same time in 1858. They thus changed both the course of biology and how we understand the natural world around us.

New hawk moth species are among the smallest ever discovered

Hawk moths are known for being some of the largest night fliers in the insect world. With wingspans of more than four inches, many species are big enough to comfortably fill the palm of your hand. Thanks to the work of a ...

Victorian medicine shaped modern concepts of race

Charles Darwin raised the question of whether darker skin is correlated with immunity to certain diseases in his 1871 book "The Descent of Man," an erroneous claim that reflected beliefs about the reality and fixity of race ...

Exploring the origins of molecular paleontology

If "Jurassic Park" fueled your interest in dinosaurs, genetics, and all things ancient, you aren't alone. There's an entire field dedicated to looking for ancient DNA—molecular paleontology—that predates Michael Crichton's ...

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