https://phys.org/biology-news/evolution/ en-us The latest science news on evolution Humans can communicate various instructions to dogs without using actual words—simply by modulating the tone of their voice, a new study from ELTE University's Department of Ethology shows. By repeating the nonsense syllable 'bü' in different intonations, humans successfully signaled "Yes," "No," "Here," and "There" and, remarkably, dogs responded correctly, despite receiving no prior training. The findings reveal ancient acoustic codes, interpretable across species, that predate language itself. The study was published in Cognition. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dogs-human-tone-words-hinting.html Evolution Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:30:01 EDT news699720301 The first large-sized bovines grew to up to half a ton 4 million years ago in the European Early Pliocene, an early step toward our modern diversity of large-bodied buffalo and cattle, according to a study published June 3, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Leonardo Sorbelli of the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Germany, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ton-early-bovines-roamed-million.html Evolution Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:00:05 EDT news699638342 The extinction that ended the Age of Dinosaurs is best known for clearing the way for the Age of Mammals on land. Scientists have long suspected that the same catastrophe also transformed life in the seas, opening ecological space for the rise of modern marine fish faunas. Yet the timing and geography of that transition have remained uncertain because of the sparse fossil record. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-egypt-fossils-modern-ocean-fish.html Evolution Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:00:04 EDT news699694441 Octopuses are remarkably intelligent creatures, as was demonstrated by Inky the Octopus's famous escape from the National Aquarium of New Zealand through a drainpipe back to sea in 2016. A new Dartmouth study shows octopuses can use mirrors to find food out of sight, demonstrating spatial cognitive abilities. The results are published in Current Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-octopuses-mirror-prey.html Plants & Animals Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:40:07 EDT news699709322 Bryozoans are tiny, filter-feeding colonial invertebrates that thrive in the world's oceans today, yet for decades their origins presented a puzzling gap in the fossil record. While nearly every other major animal group made its first appearance during the Cambrian explosion roughly 530 million years ago, the bryozoan fossil record remained stubbornly silent until the Ordovician period, some 50 million years later. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-extraordinary-fossils-million-year-mystery.html Evolution Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:00:09 EDT news699636181 A new study on multiple genomes from the extinct cave lion has discovered that it represented a highly distinct evolutionary lineage, which separated from modern lions more than a million years ago. The results also show that the cave lion had a history of interbreeding with modern lions that was tightly linked to past climatic changes. These findings are published in the journal Cell in a study led by Swedish and British scientists. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-cave-lion-genomes-reveal.html Plants & Animals Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:00:02 EDT news699608582 Living in the Dead Sea would be a very unpleasant experience for most creatures. With salt concentration above 30% and temperatures ranging from 10–50°C, it takes unique environmental adaptations to survive in such harsh conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dead-sea-archaea-sport-tail.html Evolution Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:40:01 EDT news699696781 Black abalone once carpeted the rocky shores of California by the millions. The large, long-lived sea snails sustained Indigenous peoples along the coast for thousands of years, anchored a thriving 20th-century commercial fishery and inspired generations of California cooks, divers, and artists. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-dna-california-critically-endangered.html Evolution Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:20:09 EDT news699696541 Fossil fragments found in the U.K. have been identified as remains of the largest scorpions ever. Measuring more than a meter in length, Praearcturus gigas was among the first large predators to ever stalk the land. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-world-largest-scorpion-revealed-million.html Evolution Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:40:02 EDT news699695521 The question of why females mate with multiple males has long puzzled evolutionary biologists. A new study of African foam-nest tree frogs, led by University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers, reveals polyandry could be the key to reproductive success and a safer home for offspring. The findings shed light on how amphibians have evolved to protect their young in challenging environments, presenting a new hypothesis for the evolution of polyandry that ties mating behavior to the quality of nest construction. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-perks-polyandry-multiple-males-home.html Evolution Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:20:02 EDT news699693122 A key step in the origin of many pandemics occurs when an animal-borne virus infects humans and then evolves to spread more efficiently from person to person. That is why scientists and physicians keep a close watch on viruses that could jump from animals to humans, such as emerging strains of avian flu and bat coronaviruses, as well as viruses that have already crossed into humans but, for now, spread poorly among people, such as hantavirus and Ebola. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-lab-evolution-recreates-covid-path.html Evolution Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:40:02 EDT news699619681 Tracks left by some of the earliest complex animals are giving new insights into how they experienced the world. New research reveals how these creatures started to understand their surroundings, paving the way for animal life to spread across the planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-animals-sharpening-cambrian-explosion-ancient.html Evolution Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:00:03 EDT news699617210 How did life make the leap from single cells to coordinated, multicellular organisms? And how do genetically identical cells still perform a version of that feat every time an embryo begins to take shape? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-story-multicellular-life-physics-genes.html Evolution Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:20:10 EDT news699616835 If plants had never learned to grow in multiple directions, our world would look very different. No trees, flowers, or other complex plants—and therefore no animals or humans. New research from the University of Copenhagen now suggests that a specific protein in moss may have been crucial for this key step in plant evolution—a step that made life on land possible. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-flat-moss-forests-protein-discovery.html Evolution Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:20:08 EDT news699614532 Stanford scientists have discovered a new type of immune cell that kills surrounding cells via explosion—a cellular detonation so fast and complete that the cell vanishes within minutes, leaving no trace behind. This discovery comes from an unlikely source: planarian flatworms. These aquatic, slithering pancake versions of worms are famous for their ability to survive dismemberment and grow whole new organisms from the sliced-up segments of their formerly unified body. Understanding how these flatworms' immune systems have managed to endure for hundreds of millions of years could hold important insights for modern medicine. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-flatworms-reveal-immune-cells-tissue.html Evolution Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:00:07 EDT news699543121 Researchers have developed a fish-like robot that shows how some species of modern fish are able to walk on land, and could help unravel how early vertebrates evolved similar abilities hundreds of millions of years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-robot-fish-unravel-ancient-ancestors.html Evolution Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:00:04 EDT news699525481 The evolution of sex remains one of biology's greatest puzzles. While sexual reproduction dominates across the animal kingdom, scientists still debate why it persists despite its high costs. Even more mysterious is the loss of sex in favor of asexual reproduction whereby females give birth to copies of themselves without any contribution from males. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hybrids-virgin-birth-insects-reveal.html Plants & Animals Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:45:13 EDT news699547475 Dinosaurs are estimated to have roamed Earth for over 165 million years, gradually evolving over time to survive in changing environments. Among the many fascinating groups of dinosaurs known to have lived on our planet are alvarezsauroids. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tiny-armed-alvarezsauroid-dinosaurs-insect.html Evolution Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:40:06 EDT news699529068 There's a conundrum that has perplexed biologists since Charles Darwin himself. Why do some exotic species take off as invasive pests while others don't? https://phys.org/news/2026-05-vast-botanical-darwin-puzzle-exotic.html Evolution Fri, 29 May 2026 13:40:04 EDT news699273241 The origin of turtles has always been a bit of a puzzle for scientists who study the evolution of animals. To this day, where they fit in the tree of life remains a highly debated topic. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-turtles-tree-life-xray-south.html Evolution Thu, 28 May 2026 16:40:02 EDT news699193621 Researchers have found surprising links that show that Neanderthal ancestry influences our immune system today in ways more nuanced than previously recognized. Their work is published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neanderthal-ancestry-defenses-common-dna.html Evolution Thu, 28 May 2026 09:40:05 EDT news699177781 New research published in BMC Biology helps to fill in questions about the so-called "Furongian gap" from about 497 million to 485 million years ago, when paleontologists previously thought there were far fewer fossils than periods before or after it. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-forgotten-museum-fossil-rewrite-animal.html Evolution Thu, 28 May 2026 09:00:02 EDT news699094381 A new study of British wrens has provided new insights into the inner workings of "island syndromes," according to research led by the University of Birmingham. The paper, published in the Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society, reveals that different subspecies of island wrens are evolving independently, with the team finding particularly strong evidence of "island gigantism" in two of the studied populations. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scientists-evolution-gigantism-scottish-island.html Evolution Thu, 28 May 2026 06:00:01 EDT news699103081 When it comes to flocking together, homing pigeons use a simple strategy to find better ways home, according to a recent report. The study, published in the journal eLife, suggests that homing pigeons use simple route averaging when navigating as a group. eLife's editors say the work addresses an important question, and provides compelling evidence based on multiple models and data on how homing pigeons can generate social routes from solitary ones. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-homing-pigeons-simple-winging-home.html Plants & Animals Tue, 26 May 2026 16:40:02 EDT news699019862 The outer regions of the brain, the cortex, have specific layers of different cells—neurons—that are similarly ordered among all mammals, from tiny mouse brains to huge elephant brains. However, the proportions of different cell layers vary widely among species, and little is known about how and why this variation happens. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-early-brain-growth-mammals-cortexes.html Evolution Tue, 26 May 2026 10:40:01 EDT news699003541 In the Triassic, the modern animals we know were just beginning to diversify into a menagerie of forms and body plans that rhyme with the lifestyles of extinct and living animals better known to the public, but nested in groups that ended up taking wildly divergent paths. Case in point: Labrujasuchus expectatus. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-toothless-legged-crocodile-cousin-reveals.html Evolution Tue, 26 May 2026 08:00:01 EDT news698921148 Almost all animal species—including humans—have blood cells, but between different species our blood tells different stories. The lineage and components of blood cells vary widely, and this variety is a testament to how animals have evolved to protect themselves from infectious diseases. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-million-year-history-blood-cells.html Evolution Mon, 25 May 2026 15:00:02 EDT news698671021 A new Yale study identifies a distinct species of eyeless cavefish, a discovery that challenges long-held conventional wisdom that caves and other subterranean ecosystems are evolutionary dead ends. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-emergence-cavefish-species-evolutionary-dead.html Evolution Sat, 23 May 2026 08:00:02 EDT news698658746 For all the diversity of the human condition, one experience is almost universally painful: adolescence. It's also unusual. Most other species pass from puberty to adulthood quickly, but humans linger for years in a transitional state, not quite children but not quite adults, either. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-chimpanzees-unusually-protracted-vulnerable-adolescences.html Plants & Animals Fri, 22 May 2026 12:00:02 EDT news698668443 A new study, published in Ecology and Evolution, shows that social living is associated with longer lifespan, but also that the benefits of sociality level off once animals move beyond living in pairs. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-social-mammals-longer-bigger-groups.html Evolution Fri, 22 May 2026 10:40:06 EDT news698661843