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Evolution news
New study reveals evolution's role in ecosystem stability and tipping points
Monash University biologists have discovered that evolution can significantly impact the stability and tipping points of ecosystems, potentially causing early ecosystem collapse or aiding in their recovery.
Evolution
7 hours ago
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Apes understand reasons behind each other's actions, research finds
A research team, including academics from the University of Warwick, has suggested that apes can understand the communicative goals behind each other's actions—a skill previously thought to be unique to humans.
Plants & Animals
7 hours ago
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Polar bears found to have diverged from brown bears just 70,000 years ago
A team of molecular ecologists at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark, has found that polar bears developed unique features that allowed them to survive in a harsh, cold environment just 70,000 years ago.
Early dingoes are related to dogs from New Guinea and East Asia, 3D fossil scanning study finds
New archaeological research by the University of Sydney has discovered for the first time clear links between fossils of the iconic Australian dingo, and dogs from East Asia and New Guinea.
Evolution
8 hours ago
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Highly-sensitive beaks could help albatrosses and penguins find their food
Researchers have discovered that seabirds, including penguins and albatrosses, have highly-sensitive regions in their beaks that could be used to help them find food. This is the first time this ability has been identified ...
Evolution
23 hours ago
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Primates bond for their own benefit: Study underlines the decisive role that females play
Female and male primates often form close bonds, but not purely out of affection. Close relationships usually evolve when there is a clear benefit for both parties, with protection and reproductive control playing key roles.
Plants & Animals
Sep 17, 2024
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The mammalian inner ear is a striking example of convergent evolution, new study reveals
A new study reveals the surprisingly convergent evolution in the inner ear of mammals. An international research team led by Nicole Grunstra from the University of Vienna and Anne Le Maître from the Konrad Lorenz Institute ...
Evolution
Sep 17, 2024
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Exceptional new fish fossil sparks a rethink of how Earth's geology drives evolution
Coelacanths are deep-sea fish that live off the coasts of southern Africa and Indonesia and can reach up to two meters in length. For a long time, scientists believed they were extinct.
Evolution
Sep 15, 2024
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Global warming is driving rapid evolutionary response in fruit flies, research suggests
Researchers from the UAB have observed that the rise in temperatures and episodes of heat waves in the past two decades has accelerated the presence of genetic variations that increase tolerance to high temperatures in populations ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 13, 2024
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An evolutionary battleground: Plants vs. microbes
Gazing out on a freshwater pond, you may see tiny green plants with oval-shaped leaves floating in clusters. In overgrown ponds, these plants coat the water's surface. These plants—called duckweed or water lentils—can ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 12, 2024
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New fossil fish species scales up evidence of Earth's evolutionary march
Climate change and asteroids are linked with animal origin and extinction—and plate tectonics also seems to play a key evolutionary role, "groundbreaking" new fossil research reveals.
Evolution
Sep 12, 2024
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Long stems on flowers are an adaptation that encourages bat pollination, research suggests
Flowers that are pollinated by bats tend to have long stems that make them stand out from the surrounding foliage. New research published in New Phytologist reveals the evolutionary advantage that this characteristic provides ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 11, 2024
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Multiple ways to evolve tiny knee bone could have helped humans walk upright
The evolution of bones in primates' knees could have implications for how humans evolved to walk upright, a new study has found.
Evolution
Sep 10, 2024
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New Zealand's kākāpō developed different feather colors to evade predatory birds, genome sequencing shows
Aotearoa New Zealand's flightless parrot, the kākāpō, evolved two different color types to potentially help them avoid detection by a now-extinct apex predator, Lara Urban at Helmholtz AI, Germany and colleagues from the ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 10, 2024
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How the butterfly got its pupa: Modeling study traces origins of complete metamorphosis
A research team of scientists from Freie Universität Berlin and Princeton University has provided insights into the origins of complete metamorphosis in insects.
Plants & Animals
Sep 10, 2024
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Neolithic bones reveal isolated Yersinia pestis infections, not pandemics
Since the catastrophic pandemics of the Middle Ages, one disease has almost proverbially symbolized contagion and death: the plague. It is now known that the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis has been present in Central and ...
Evolution
Sep 6, 2024
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New book takes philosophical approach to deep time
Contemporary life is rife with talk of impending apocalypse, from the plots of countless books and movies to the increasingly grim predictions associated with climate change.
Evolution
Sep 6, 2024
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Role of long noncoding RNAs in skin provides important insights for evolution
A study has shown that a type of non-coding RNA molecule could play a role in the development of skin diseases—like eczema or psoriasis—and highlights an important molecular mechanism for driving genetic evolution.
Evolution
Sep 6, 2024
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Islands are engines of linguistic diversity, study shows
Islands drive language change and generate language diversity in similar ways to how they drive species diversity, according to research from The Australian National University (ANU) that analyzed languages from over 13,000 ...
Evolution
Sep 6, 2024
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Plant thermogenesis has played key role in attracting pollinating insects for at least 200 million years, study suggests
Thermogenesis is a process by which organisms generate internal heat. Although it is usually associated with animals, some plants have also developed this ability. This metabolic process allows certain parts of the plant, ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 6, 2024
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