A century after the Taung Child permanently altered our view of human origins, a new study published in npj Palaeoecosystems dates the famous fossil to between 2.96 and 3.03 million years old. Led by professor Gabriele Macho ...
Evolution
Nov 9, 2026
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309
Sperm whales and pygmy sperm whales are known among mammals for their unusually shaped heads. Unlike most vertebrates, which are bilaterally symmetrical, toothed whales have asymmetrical skulls that accommodate highly specialized ...
Evolution
Nov 9, 2026
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197
Few insects have a more gruesome lifestyle than Darwin wasps. Rather than simply hunting other animals, these parasitic wasps lay their eggs on or inside living hosts, including caterpillars, beetles and spiders. Their larvae ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 6, 2026
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180
Human feet are much stiffer than those of other primates, which means they limit midfoot bending during walking. The evolutionary reasons for this are not entirely clear. One idea is that the features that stiffen the foot ...
In all likelihood, the Neanderthals had flat feet. But it was not a defect at all. Instead, it was the consequence of a precise functional strategy to reduce impact stress under heavy loads and maximize stability on mountainous ...
Evolution
Nov 4, 2026
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82
Yale research scientist Saúl Domínguez-Guerrero didn't set out to catch "evolution in the act" when he traveled to the Caribbean with a team of Yale researchers a few years ago. At the time, the team from the lab of evolutionary ...
Evolution
Nov 3, 2026
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73
A new study has revealed how the repurposing of an ancestral gene saved the embryos of cod's ancestors from extinction, enabling them to form the large populations that, millions of years later, would change the course of ...
Evolution
Nov 5, 2026
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69
There are no woodpeckers on the Hawaiian Islands, but a little yellow bird called the 'akiapōlāʻau (Ah-key-ah-pole-ah-ow) has evolved an unusual beak to drill into branches to find food.
Evolution
Nov 5, 2026
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37
The genital structures of male hawkmoths are lifesavers. By rubbing specialized scales on their genitals against parts of their abdomen, the nocturnal insects emit ultrasonic sounds that can potentially scramble the acoustic ...
What did the algae that gave rise to the first land plants look like? A research team led by the University of Göttingen and including the universities of Maastricht and Innsbruck and Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 5, 2026
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