Human origins traced to worm fossil in Canada
(PhysOrg.com) -- Most primitive known vertebrate and therefore the ancestor of all descendant vertebrates, including humans, discovered.
Mar 05, 2012
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Sunlight stimulates release of climate-warming gas from melting Arctic permafrost, study says
Ancient carbon trapped in Arctic permafrost is extremely sensitive to sunlight and, if exposed to the surface when long-frozen soils melt and collapse, can release climate-warming carbon dioxide gas into ...
Feb 11, 2013
4.3 / 5 (23)
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Study of giant viruses shakes up tree of life
Coelacanth genome surfaces: Unexpected insights from a fish with a 300-million-year-old fossil record
An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of a creature whose evolutionary history is both enigmatic and illuminating: the African coelacanth. A sea-cave dwelling, five-foot long fish with ...
Apr 17, 2013
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Hacking code of leaf vein architecture solves mysteries, allows predictions of past climate
(Phys.org) -- UCLA life scientists have discovered new laws that determine the construction of leaf vein systems as leaves grow and evolve. These easy-to-apply mathematical rules can now be used to better ...
May 23, 2012
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Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
May 27, 2012
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Researchers conclude that what causes menopause is—wait for it—men
Did Lucy walk, climb, or both? Australopithecine ancestors—arboreal versus terrestrial habitat and locomotion
Dartmouth researchers investigate tree-climbing behavior of modern hunter-gatherers to elucidate our fossil ancestors' terrestrial versus arboreal preferences.
Dec 31, 2012
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Woolly mammoth extinction has lessons for modern climate change
Although humans and woolly mammoths co-existed for millennia, the shaggy giants disappeared from the globe between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago, and scientists couldn't explain until recently exactly how the ...
Jun 12, 2012
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Human Y chromosome much older than previously thought
(Phys.org) —University of Arizona geneticists have discovered the oldest known genetic branch of the human Y chromosome – the hereditary factor determining male sex.
Mar 04, 2013
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Self-medication in animals much more widespread than believed
It's been known for decades that animals such as chimpanzees seek out medicinal herbs to treat their diseases. But in recent years, the list of animal pharmacists has grown much longer, and it now appears that the practice ...
Apr 11, 2013
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Study proposes alternative way to explain life's complexity
Study pushes back onset date of South Africa's Later Stone Age by more than 20,000 years
The Later Stone Age emerged in South Africa more than 20,000 years earlier than previously believed -- about the same time humans were migrating from Africa to the European continent, says a new international ...
Jul 30, 2012
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Mass extinction study provides lessons for modern world
