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 with and relied ...

Changing climate can affect fish fertility

(Phys.org) -- Warmer water temperatures can greatly increase the reproductive capacity of the widely distributed pest fish species gambusia, or mosquito fish, a new study has found.

Tidal locking could render habitable planets inhospitable

Tidally-locked planets - planets with one side perpetually facing their star while the other remains shrouded in darkness - tend to be warmer on one side than the other. The presence of an atmosphere can help distribute the ...

Speeding up evolution: Orchid epigenetics

Organisms adapt to their dynamic environment using various strategies. Ovidiu Paun, working at the Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, investigates how marsh orchids adjust to and diffuse in different habitats. ...

Some like it hot: Site of human evolution was scorching

If you think summer in your hometown is hot, consider it fortunate that you don't live in the Turkana Basin of Kenya, where the average daily temperature has reached the mid-90s or higher, year-round, for the past 4 million ...

Competition may be reason for bigger brain

For the past 2 million years, the size of the human brain has tripled, growing much faster than other mammals. Examining the reasons for human brain expansion, University of Missouri researchers studied three common hypotheses ...

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