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New evolutionary model revises the origins of biodiversity

An international team of scientists has made a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how global biodiversity evolved. By reconstructing the evolution of species over the past 45 million years, researchers found ...

Naked mole-rat found to have lost infection-resistant proteins

Scientists have found that the naked mole-rat—an underground rodent that lives up to 40 years—has lost a number of CD1 functional genes. The CD1 gene family in mammals is responsible for protein synthesis that protects ...

How diversity in heat tolerance can help protect coral reefs

New research out of Southern Cross University has found previously undocumented variation in coral heat tolerance on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, giving hope that corals' own genetic resources may hold the key for us to ...

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Evolution
Love island: Bird's refusal to leave resort life leads to genetic change
Evolution
Convergent evolution study sheds light on how new genes arise
Plants & Animals
New mechanism uncovered for the reduction of emu wings
Plants & Animals
Polar bears found to have diverged from brown bears just 70,000 years ago
Plants & Animals
Apes understand reasons behind each other's actions, research finds
Evolution
Early dingoes are related to dogs from New Guinea and East Asia, 3D fossil scanning study finds
Evolution
New study reveals evolution's role in ecosystem stability and tipping points
Evolution
The mammalian inner ear is a striking example of convergent evolution, new study reveals
Evolution
Highly-sensitive beaks could help albatrosses and penguins find their food
Plants & Animals
Primates bond for their own benefit: Study underlines the decisive role that females play
Evolution
Exceptional new fish fossil sparks a rethink of how Earth's geology drives evolution
Plants & Animals
Global warming is driving rapid evolutionary response in fruit flies, research suggests
Evolution
New fossil fish species scales up evidence of Earth's evolutionary march
Plants & Animals
An evolutionary battleground: Plants vs. microbes
Plants & Animals
Long stems on flowers are an adaptation that encourages bat pollination, research suggests
Evolution
Multiple ways to evolve tiny knee bone could have helped humans walk upright
Plants & Animals
New Zealand's kākāpō developed different feather colors to evade predatory birds, genome sequencing shows
Plants & Animals
How the butterfly got its pupa: Modeling study traces origins of complete metamorphosis
Evolution
Neolithic bones reveal isolated Yersinia pestis infections, not pandemics
Plants & Animals
Plant thermogenesis has played key role in attracting pollinating insects for at least 200 million years, study suggests

Other news

Astronomy
Observations explore the nature of transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038
Space Exploration
Fireworks forecast if comet survives risky sun flypast
Earth Sciences
Geologists discover mysterious subduction zone beneath Pacific, reshaping understanding of Earth's interior
Planetary Sciences
Asteroid Ceres is a former ocean world that slowly formed into a giant, murky icy orb
Other
Saturday Citations: Octopuses as shift supervisors for fish; universe confounds standard model; extremely old cheese
Planetary Sciences
Ryugu samples call into question previous ideas about the formation of carbon-rich asteroids
Analytical Chemistry
High-energy-density cubic gauche nitrogen successfully synthesized at atmospheric pressure
Optics & Photonics
Research team succeeds in ultra-fast switching of tiny light sources
Plants & Animals
Forest loss forces langur species to interbreed, study shows
Earth Sciences
Marine dust identifies 1.5 million year Oldest Ice near South America
Space Exploration
Earth to capture a 'second moon' this weekend, NASA says
Nanophysics
Researchers crack a key problem with sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and grid energy storage
Bio & Medicine
Bioengineers and chemists design fluorescent 3D-printed structures with potential medical applications
Planetary Sciences
Study suggests moon may have been captured from space rather than formed from collision particles
Plants & Animals
Scientists use drones to track white sharks along California beaches
Optics & Photonics
Nonlinear optical metasurface achieves electrically tunable third-harmonic generation
General Physics
From branches to loops: The physics of transport networks in nature
Analytical Chemistry
Chemical engineers provide new insights in CO₂ conversion with electricity
General Physics
Accelerator lab provides detailed data on the 'magic' N=50 neutron shell closure
Environment
Enhancing hurricane forecasts: Simulations reveal reducing estimates of atmospheric friction improves storm predictions

Why eukaryotes, not bacteria, evolved complex multicellularity

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 ...

Gene flow in giraffes and what it means for their conservation

Giraffes are a beautiful and powerful example of what adaptive evolution can achieve. However, in recent years, they have attained notoriety for a completely different reason: it has been suggested that instead of one giraffe ...

Defensive cage architectures in herbivore-driven ecosystems

Dense branching and spines are common features of plant species in ecosystems with high mammalian herbivory pressure. The combination of dense branching and spines is likely to produce the most effective herbivore defenses, ...