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Evolution news
Mammal ancestors laid eggs—and this 250-million-year-old fossil proves it
A remarkable new discovery is shedding light on one of the greatest survival stories in Earth's history, and answering a decades-old scientific mystery. Lystrosaurus, a hardy, plant-eating mammal ancestor, rose to prominence ...
Evolution
1 hour ago
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Great apes mirror facial expressions with surprising precision, study shows
New research from the University of Portsmouth has found that great apes exhibit exactness in mimicking one another's facial expressions in social contexts. The study, published in Scientific Reports, explored how orangutans ...
Evolution
2 hours ago
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From Asgard to Earth: Tiny tubes may reveal the moment complex life began
Stromatolites—and their close relatives, microbial mats—could be mistaken for what seems like a bunch of old dark rocks. But instead, they are dense, layered communities of microbes. Long before complex life such as animals ...
Evolution
4 hours ago
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Dragonflies share humans' red-light sensing trick, detecting wavelengths near 720 nm
Sometimes, different organisms can evolve the same ability independently, a process called parallel evolution. A new study from Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) has found that dragonflies sense red light similarly to mammals, ...
Evolution
4 hours ago
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Research traces evolution of anglerfishes' famed fishing-rod lures
Anybody who has seen "Finding Nemo" knows about those captivating monsters of the sea: anglerfishes. Variously horrific or alien-looking, many female anglerfishes sport long, protruding lures used for enticing prey or signaling ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 8, 2026
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The oldest breath: A 300-million-year-old mummy reveals the origins of how amniotes breathe
Every breath you take is an ancient inheritance. The rise and fall of your chest, the intercostal muscles pulling your ribs outward, the rush of air into your lungs—this mechanism is so familiar it barely registers as remarkable. ...
Evolution
Apr 8, 2026
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Climate change may speed evolution through inherited gene regulation changes
A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, finds that changes in animal development induced by climate shock persist generations after the initial event. The escalating effects of climate change are likely to, in effect, ...
Evolution
Apr 8, 2026
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'Oldest octopus' fossil is no octopus at all, scans reveal
A famous 300-million-year-old fossil that was thought to be the world's oldest octopus—even featuring in the Guinness Book of Records—has turned out to be something else altogether. In what amounts to a case of mistaken identity, ...
Evolution
Apr 7, 2026
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African frogs haven't forgotten the ice ages. Scientists can tell by where they live.
Why are frogs diverse in some parts of Africa's rainforests and less so in others? The patterns of cooling and glaciation during the last ice age would probably not have been your first answer or even your last-ditch guess, ...
Evolution
Apr 7, 2026
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New spider species in the Amazon mimics parasitic fungus
An international research team, including the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), has described a new species of spider from the Ecuadorian Amazon: Taczanowskia waska. The species is characterized ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 7, 2026
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How the social lives of magpies shape their call repertoire
Communication is central to the survival of most animals, including humans. Yet animals of different species communicate differently, and the complexity of their communication skills varies greatly. One characteristic of ...
How the female baboon body has the final say in sperm selection
Just because a female olive baboon has mated with a specific male doesn't mean he will be the father of her offspring. According to a new study published in PLOS Biology, mate selection continues long after copulation as ...
Mutant clownfish reveals how nature draws boundaries
In 1999, a clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) hatched in the aquarium of a tropical fish hobbyist in the UK. These clownfish are prized by aquarists for their unique pattern of three straight white bars bordered by a thin black ...
Evolution
Apr 6, 2026
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'Lliving fossils' nautilus and allonautilus shaped by depths and diets over 500 million years
Nautilus and Allonautilus cephalopods and their extinct ancestors have been drifting through the mesophotic zone of the ocean for more than 500 million years. Researchers have spent the last 40 years trying to understand ...
Evolution
Apr 5, 2026
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It takes a village: How cooperative breeding has shaped Lake Tanganyika fish
"It takes a village to raise a child" doesn't apply merely to humans. Many species of mammals, birds, fish, and various invertebrates have evolved complex social care systems known as cooperative breeding. In these animal ...
Evolution
Apr 5, 2026
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Humans' closest invertebrate ancestors date back much further than thought
Animal life is extraordinarily diverse and complex, having colonized almost all environments on Earth—from hostile hydrothermal vents in the deep sea to the skies across our continents. But the planet was not always teeming ...
Evolution
Apr 4, 2026
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How we came to be: Scientists get first look at the evolution of early complex animals
Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually ...
Evolution
Apr 4, 2026
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Our modern vision evolved from an ancient one‑eyed worm creature
It's easy to take our eyes for granted. But our recent research shows they took an incredible evolutionary journey to reach their current familiar form.
Evolution
Apr 4, 2026
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How the octopus uses its 'taste by touch' sensory system to feel out potential mates
A new study by Harvard biologists reveals how octopuses feel their way to potential mates with a "taste by touch" sensory system and can even couple at arm's length without actually seeing each other. In a study featured ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 2, 2026
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Spectacular fossil treasure trove pushes back origins of complex animals
A newly discovered fossil site in southwest China has transformed our understanding of how complex animal life emerged on Earth, revealing that many key animal groups had already evolved before the start of the Cambrian Period. ...
Evolution
Apr 2, 2026
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Houston, we have a problem ... with the toilet
Why treelines don't simply rise with the climate
