(Phys.org)—Over long spans, biodiversity is a fluid and shifting balance of species and influences. Species diversification occurs in response to a host of complex factors, both biotic and abiotic, and understanding them ...
Penguins that died 44,000 years ago in Antarctica have provided extraordinary frozen DNA samples that challenge the accuracy of traditional genetic aging measurements, and suggest those approaches have been routinely underestimating ...
Evolution
Nov 10, 2009
16
0
Over 90 per cent of mammal species were wiped out by the same asteroid that killed the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago, significantly more than previously thought.
Archaeology
Jun 20, 2016
0
931
A team of researchers from the University of Bristol studying the 'living fossil' Sphenodon - or tuatara - have identified a new way to measure the evolutionary rate of these enigmatic creatures, giving credence to Darwin's ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Feb 22, 2017
2
572
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 pass their genes ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 15, 2011
7
0
Evolutionary biologists have for a long time disagreed on the rate of evolution when new species emerge. Are new species the result of gradual changes—as Charles Darwin suggested—or is evolution speeding up for short ...
Evolution
Jun 3, 2020
8
1333
The most widely used methods for calculating species extinction rates are "fundamentally flawed" and overestimate extinction rates by as much as 160 percent, life scientists report May 19 in the journal Nature.
Ecology
May 18, 2011
3
1
New research led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of New Mexico has pinpointed changes in a single, mutation-prone gene site that ultimately allow wrens to breathe easy in the rarefied air of the Andes.
Evolution
Oct 14, 2015
20
34
The one thing about species that most people probably remember from high school science class is that when it comes to sex, they generally stick to their own kind. Hybrids happen, but they are usually thought to be accidental, ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 20, 2020
1
1228
(PhysOrg.com) -- Plant lineages with multiple copies of their genetic information face higher extinction rates than their relatives, researchers report in Science magazine.
Plants & Animals
Sep 13, 2011
8
0
