Prokaryotic single-celled organisms, the ancestors of modern-day bacteria and archaea, are the most ancient form of life on our planet, first appearing roughly 3.5 billion years ago. The first eukaryotic cells appeared around ...
Evolution
Mar 13, 2024
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25
Coast redwoods—enormous, spectacular trees, some reaching nearly 400 feet, the tallest plants on the planet—thrive mostly in a narrow strip of land in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Most of them grow from ...
Evolution
Jan 2, 2024
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4
Plant species are distributed in their preferred climatic zones, and plants growing at the edge of their natural distribution range often exhibit poor growth when relocated to a different environment. This phenomenon has ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 10, 2023
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7
In the world of threatened and endangered species conservation, the genomic revolution has raised some complicated questions: How can scientists justify assessing species genetic diversity without consulting entire genomes ...
Evolution
Oct 16, 2023
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136
Africa is the birthplace of modern humans and the continent with the highest level of genetic diversity. While ancient DNA studies are revealing some aspects of the genetic structure of Africa before the spread of food production, ...
Archaeology
Sep 22, 2023
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113
Genetic kinship analyses of human bones reach their limits if the DNA is poorly preserved or if destructive sampling is not possible. New research shows that in such cases, comparisons of the structure and shape of certain ...
Evolution
Aug 10, 2023
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91
Genetic variation is the ultimate fuel for evolution, says Utah State University evolutionary geneticist Zachariah Gompert. But, over centuries, that fuel reservoir gets depleted in the course of natural selection and random ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 12, 2023
0
306
The second century Alexandrian astronomer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy had a grand ambition. Hoping to make sense of the motion of stars and the paths of planets, he published a magisterial treatise on the subject, ...
Evolution
Jun 6, 2022
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452
Scientists at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution announced today that ribonucleic acid (RNA), an analog of DNA that was likely the first genetic material for life, spontaneously forms on basalt lava glass. Such ...
Astrobiology
Jun 3, 2022
29
19828
The sclera of the eye is devoid of pigment, which is why humans can easily follow where counterparts are looking. Researchers have long believed this facilitates glance-based communication. A team of zoologists based at the ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 22, 2021
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10
