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Evolution news
Fossil teeth suggest a long childhood is the prelude to the evolution of a large brain
Compared to the great apes, humans have an exceptionally long childhood, during which parents, grandparents and other adults contribute to their physical and cognitive development. This is a key developmental period for acquiring ...
Evolution
7 hours ago
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Bird brain from the age of dinosaurs reveals roots of avian intelligence
A 'one of a kind' fossil discovery could transform our understanding of how the unique brains and intelligence of modern birds evolved, one of the most enduring mysteries of vertebrate evolution.
Evolution
11 hours ago
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Particle accelerator helps discover new fossil species of coelacanth
Coelacanths are strange fish that are currently only known from two species found along the East African coast and in Indonesia. A team from the Natural History Museum (MHNG) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has succeeded ...
Evolution
Nov 12, 2024
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How did the division of labor emerge in animals and humans? Little-known organisms hold clues
Human societies have long depended on the division of labor to thrive—walk into any town, and you can probably find bakers baking bread, truck drivers driving that bread to market and grocers selling it.
Evolution
Nov 12, 2024
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Ouch! Study investigates pain vocalizations and interjections across 131 languages
There are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, each offering unique ways to express human emotion. But do certain emotions show regularities in their vocal expression across languages?
Evolution
Nov 12, 2024
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Hypercarnivores study reveals unique adaptations of jaw function and tooth wear
A new study led by Dr. Jack Tseng, published in PeerJ, has shed light on the intricate relationship between tooth wear and jaw mechanics in highly carnivorous mammals, known as hypercarnivores.
Evolution
Nov 11, 2024
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Unexpected differences in genetically identical bacteria provide a new perspective on aging at the cellular level
Surprising findings on bacterial aging have emerged from a study carried out by a team of researchers led by the biologist Dr. Ulrich Steiner at Freie Universität Berlin. In a new paper published in Science Advances, the ...
Evolution
Nov 11, 2024
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New insights into the Denisovans—the hominin group that interbred with modern day humans
Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered hominin group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct interbreeding events that helped shape ...
Evolution
Nov 9, 2024
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Plants and animals with bigger genomes grow less efficiently—new research helps explain why they never died out
All living things have a blueprint provided by the DNA that is stored in every one of their cells. Yet the amount of DNA in each cell—what we refer to as genome size—spans an incredible range across the tree of life.
Evolution
Nov 8, 2024
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The rise of color vision in animals: Study maps dramatic 100-million-year explosion in color signals
Colors are widely used in communication within and among animal species. For example, peacocks proudly display their vibrant tails, adorned with iridescent eyespots, to attract peahens for courtship. This is a classic example ...
Evolution
Nov 7, 2024
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Symmetry in biology: A look into how bees actively organize nests in mirroring patterns
Mirroring the mechanisms that make human faces and bodies—and those of many multicellular organisms—symmetrical, bee colonies build symmetrical nests when they are placed on either side of a double-sided comb. The finding, ...
Evolution
Nov 7, 2024
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Insect-killing fungi find unexpected harmony in war
University of Maryland entomologists have uncovered a unique relationship between two species of fungi known for their ability to invade, parasitize and kill insects efficiently. Instead of violently competing for the spoils ...
Evolution
Nov 7, 2024
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How do brains coordinate activity? From fruit flies to monkeys, scientists discover a universal principle
The brain is a marvel of efficiency, honed by thousands of years of evolution so it can adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Yet, despite decades of research, the mystery of how the brain achieves this has remained ...
Evolution
Nov 7, 2024
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Mountaineering mice shed light on evolutionary adaptation
Teams of mountaineering mice are helping advance understanding into how evolutionary adaptation to localized conditions can enable a single species to thrive across diverse environments.
Plants & Animals
Nov 7, 2024
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Researchers discover genetic reason for the red, yellow and orange bills of Australian finches
What gives an Australian finch its brilliantly colored red, yellow or orange bill? A major new study has uncovered the genetic switches controlling these distinctive colors, revealing a key piece in the puzzle of how animals ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 7, 2024
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Evolutionary anthropologist presents hypothesis about why humans are dominating the world over other animals
Why is human culture—the shared body of knowledge passed down across generations—so much more powerful than animal cultures?
Evolution
Nov 7, 2024
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Ancient unicellular organism indicates embryonic development might have existed prior to animals' evolution
Chromosphaera perkinsii is a single-celled species discovered in 2017 in marine sediments around Hawaii. The first signs of its presence on Earth have been dated at over a billion years, well before the appearance of the ...
Evolution
Nov 6, 2024
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Australian dragon study reveals surprising link between motor systems control and sleep rhythms
Sleep is one of the most mysterious, yet ubiquitous components of our biology. It has been described in all major groups of animals, including worms, jellyfish, insects or cephalopods, and in all vertebrates, from fish to ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 6, 2024
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Biologists discover how plants evolved multiple ways to override genetic instructions
Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered the origin of a curious duplication that gives plants multiple ways to override instructions that are coded into their DNA. This research could help scientists ...
Evolution
Nov 6, 2024
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The high cost of complexity: New study explores energy needs of multicellular life
Between 1.8 billion and 800 million years ago, earthly life was in the doldrums. During this period, called the "boring billion," the complexity of life remained minimal, dominated by single-celled organisms with only sporadic ...
Evolution
Nov 6, 2024
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Other news
Meteorite contains evidence of liquid water on Mars 742 million years ago
Experiment supports existence of a new type of superconductor
Barley pangenome study reveals diversity can arise after domestication
MassiveFold: Customizable version of AlphaFold reduces protein structure prediction time from months to hours
How 'clean' does a quantum computing test facility need to be?
Study shows birth is a tight squeeze for chimpanzees, too
Study reveals light-responsive gut mechanism in sea urchins
Turtle genome provides new clues on the evolution of vertebrates
Squishy microgels in granular biomaterials confine and direct cell behavior
Linking data on genetics, traits and environment gives crop breeders a wider lens
Robot identifies plants by 'touching' their leaves
