http://phys.org/biology-news/evolution/ en-us PhysOrg Team Phys.Org provides the latest news on evolution An international team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, suggest that inactivation of two specific genes related to the immune system may have conferred selected ancestors of modern humans with improved protection from some pathogenic bacterial strains, such as Escherichia coli K1 and Group B Streptococci, the leading causes of sepsis and meningitis in human fetuses, newborns and infants. http://phys.org/news258035713.html Biology - Evolution 2012-06-04T15:00:16-07:00 Giant insects ruled the prehistoric skies during periods when Earth's atmosphere was rich in oxygen. Then came the birds. After the evolution of birds about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller despite rising oxygen levels, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz. http://phys.org/news258035891.html Biology - Evolution 2012-06-04T15:00:06-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Sure, sex may be fun, but it’s a lot of work, and the payoff is by no means certain. Scientists have speculated for a long time on why all living things don’t simply make like amoebas and split. http://phys.org/news257580402.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-30T07:07:13-07:00 (AP) -- Richard Leakey predicts skepticism over evolution will soon be history. Not that the avowed atheist has any doubts himself. http://phys.org/news257274337.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-26T18:05:52-07:00 (Phys.org) -- In the course of its evolution, the architecture of the mouse brain may have barely changed. Similar to the tiny ancestors of modern mammals that lived about 80 million years ago, nerve cells in the mouse visual cortex are densely packed in a small area of ​​the brain. However, during the subsequent evolution of larger brains the architecture of the cerebral cortex was radically restructured. This is the conclusion of an international team of researchers led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, the University of Göttingen and the Bernstein Center Göttingen. The brains of larger mammals, such as humans, however, have a completely different structure to those of mice. Processes of self-organisation led to the emergence of modules in which neurons conjointly are responsible for specific tasks. http://phys.org/news256987203.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-23T10:20:13-07:00 (Phys.org) -- The French impressionist Claude Monet once credited flowers as the reason for him “having become a painter.” http://phys.org/news256980213.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-23T08:40:01-07:00 Environmental change is the selective force that preserves adaptive traits in organisms and is a primary driver of evolution. However, it is less well known that evolutionary change in organisms also trigger fundamental changes in the environment. http://phys.org/news256965269.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-23T04:14:38-07:00 From the inside of our heads, it feels as if colors are intrinsic aspects of the outside world and our eyes are beautifully designed to see them. But we humans are merely sampling the possible ways of sensing the spectrum of light. Most of us see more colors than dogs, but miss millions of colors that make up the world for birds, reptiles, and insects. http://phys.org/news256819716.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-21T13:10:01-07:00 Evolution of species remains a hot topic since Darwin’s theory of natural selection. A European initiative addressed the issue of speciation from the viewpoint of reproductive isolation. http://phys.org/news256379042.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-16T09:24:08-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Sleight of hand is a trait that belongs mainly to humans. Or so scientists thought. Studies of common, microscopic ocean plankton named Prochlorococcus show that humans aren't the only ones who can play a mean game of cards. http://phys.org/news255944654.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-11T08:46:42-07:00 Researchers have found that bird species with multiple plumage colour forms within in the same population, evolve into new species faster than those with only one colour form, confirming a 60 year-old evolution theory. http://phys.org/news255777120.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-09T13:00:26-07:00 In a paper published May 3, in the journal Evolution, University of Cincinnati graduate student Karl Grieshop and Michal Polak, associate professor of biological sciences at UC, examine the role of genital spines in the reproductive success of a species of fruit fly. Their investigation identifies the specific type of advantage these spines bestow in the competition to reproduce. http://phys.org/news255270969.html Biology - Evolution 2012-05-03T13:36:40-07:00 New evidence proves humans are continuing to evolve and that significant natural and sexual selection is still taking place in our species in the modern world. http://phys.org/news255019075.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-30T15:40:07-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Not all acts of altruism are alike, says a new study. From bees and wasps that die defending their nests, to elephants that cooperate to care for young, a new mathematical model pinpoints the environmental conditions that favor one form of altruism over another. http://phys.org/news255015074.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-30T15:00:04-07:00 Analyzing DNA from four ancient skeletons and comparing it with thousands of genetic samples from living humans, a group of Scandinavian scientists reported that agriculture initially spread through Europe because farmers expanded their territory northward, not because the more primitive foragers already living there adopted it on their own. http://phys.org/news254997585.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-30T10:30:01-07:00 ICP researchers published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B one of the first fossil-based evidences supporting the evolutionary theory of ageing, which predicts that species evolving in low mortality and resource-limited ecosystems tend to be more long-lived. http://phys.org/news254567375.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-25T10:10:42-07:00 Ammonites changed their reproductive strategy from initially few and large offspring to numerous and small hatchlings. Thanks to their many offspring, they survived three mass extinctions, a research team headed by paleontologists from the University of Zurich has discovered. http://phys.org/news254399274.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-23T11:28:17-07:00 (Phys.org) -- A new genetic analysis carried out by and international team of scientists has revealed that polar bears and brown bears may have diverged around 600,000 years ago, which is much earlier than the previous estimate of 150,000 years ago. http://phys.org/news254108260.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-20T02:37:59-07:00 Scientists have discovered proof that the evolution of intelligence and larger brain sizes can be driven by cooperation and teamwork, shedding new light on the origins of what it means to be human. The study appears online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B and was led by scientists at Trinity College Dublin: PhD student, Luke McNally and Assistant Professor Dr Andrew Jackson at the School of Natural Sciences in collaboration with Dr Sam Brown of the University of Edinburgh. http://phys.org/news254058056.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-19T12:41:12-07:00 In a dog-eat-dog world of ruthless competition and 'survival of the fittest,' new research from the University of Leicester reveals that individuals are genetically programmed to work together and cooperate with those who most resemble themselves. http://phys.org/news253980685.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-18T19:00:02-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Males and females... Mars and Venus... XY and XX chromosomes -- all are common memes. At the same time, the evolution of therian (placental and marsupial) sex chromosomes is less widely understood. More to the point, these arose some 150 million years ago from a pair of autosomes, or non-sex chromosomes. Having appeared, the X and Y chromosomes – both with the same ancestral genes – began diverging, with the Y chromosome evolving into a state in which (except for two small autosomal regions) it never recombines. As a result, the Y chromosome has degenerated, losing most of its genes in the process. On the other hand, the X chromosome does recombine, retains many ancestral genes – and has gained new genes, and evolved new expression patterns, as well. The increased imbalance of X/Y chromosomal loci led to the emergence of loci-specific X chromosome inactivation, which has been seen as compensating for differential gene dosage (the number of copies of a given gene present in a cell or nucleus) by making expression of X-linked genes similar in males and females. Recently, using RNA sequencing, or RNA-seq, data (more precise than previously-analyzed microarray data), scientists in the Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, Université Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in Villeurbanne, France, found support for the hypothesis that XCI acts as a dosage-compensation mechanism. At the same time, the scientists explored the contribution of dosage-sensitive genes to phenotype expression in X aneuploidy – a condition, relatively common in humans, in which one or more extra or missing chromosomes leads to an unbalanced chromosome complement, resulting in conditions such as Turner (X0) and Klinefelter (XXY) syndromes. http://phys.org/news253883337.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-18T08:50:01-07:00 Evolutionary biologists at the University of Toronto have found that individuals with low-quality genes may produce offspring with even more inferior chromosomes, possibly leading to the extinction of certain species over generations. http://phys.org/news253798227.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-16T12:30:35-07:00 European and North American black scavenger flies – also called dung flies as their larvae develop in the feces of vertebrates and thus break them down – belong to the same species. Nevertheless, they strongly differ in mating behavior and SSD. North American dung fly females are larger than males, the usual dimorphism in insects. European dung flies, however, are more unusual with males being considerably larger than females. http://phys.org/news253529296.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-13T09:48:31-07:00 Physically fit frogs have faster-changing genomes, says a new study of poison frogs from Central and South America. http://phys.org/news253466326.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-12T16:19:00-07:00 Courtship rituals can be all-consuming, demanding time and effort – but now scientists have discovered why it might be worth it. http://phys.org/news253188974.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-09T11:16:26-07:00 Researchers have reconstructed phylogenetic relationships among all 706 families of land plants. http://phys.org/news252832505.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-05T08:16:00-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new hypothesis posed by a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, associate professor and colleagues could be a game changer in the evolution arena. The hypothesis suggests some species are surviving by discarding genes and depending on other species to play their hand. http://phys.org/news252757163.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-04T11:19:37-07:00 A current controversy raging in evolutionary biology is whether adaptation to new environments is the result of many genes, each of relatively small effect, or just a few genes of large effect. A new study published in Molecular Ecology strongly supports the first "many-small" hypothesis. http://phys.org/news252681021.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-03T14:10:38-07:00 The color and scent of flowers and their perception by pollinator insects are believed to have evolved in the course of mutual adaptation. However, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Zurich has now proved that this is not the case with the arum family at least, which evolved its scent analogously to the pre-existing scents of scarab beetles and thus adapted to the beetles unilaterally. The mutual adaptation between plants and pollinators therefore does not always take place. http://phys.org/news252667275.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-03T10:22:43-07:00 Scientists studying 1,600-year-old cotton from the banks of the Nile have found what they believe is the first evidence that punctuated evolution has occurred in a major crop group within the relatively short history of plant domestication. http://phys.org/news252581254.html Biology - Evolution 2012-04-02T10:27:52-07:00