https://phys.org/biology-news/evolution/ en-us The latest science news on evolution In a new study published today in Plants, People, Planet, scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and their international collaborators clarify the distinction between Ganoderma lucidum, a European bracket fungus described in 1781, and Ganoderma lingzhi, the East Asian species widely associated with medicinal lingzhi or reishi. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-false-lingzhi-unmasked-scientists-year.html Evolution Mon, 26 Oct 2026 21:10:01 EDT news712231982 Humans and other vertebrates go through various stages of sleep, including REM (rapid eye movement) sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and muscle twitches. Can a similar sleep state be observed in spiders? Researchers from the Institute of Organismic Biology at the University of Bonn investigated this in the Australian jumping spider Portia fimbriata. The work is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-distinct-stages-emerge-spider-rem.html Plants & Animals Mon, 26 Oct 2026 15:00:17 EDT news711980642 We tend to think of our bones as solid, unchanging support structures inside our bodies, but a recent study from the University of Chicago shows just how much they can change depending on how we use them. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bones-evolution.html Evolution Mon, 26 Oct 2026 14:20:12 EDT news712242901 A lizard making a dramatic escape, leaving its tail wriggling behind as it darts to safety, is an image familiar to many. Tail-shedding is one of the most widespread defenses against predators among living lizards, yet tracing the origins of this extraordinary ability has proved to be surprisingly difficult—how can we tell when this escape tactic first arose in lizards? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lizard-tail-amber-million-year.html Evolution Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:40:06 EDT news712234861 Scientists report fossil evidence of the first fully marine amphibian in a study from the University of California, Davis; Peking University; and the Geological Museum of Guizhou. The amphibian is an armored, giant salamander–sized, bottom-dwelling ocean creature that the researchers named Gerrothorax maritimus. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-armored-amphibian-sea-million-years.html Evolution Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:00:06 EDT news711978961 When it comes to reproduction, plants have options. Some can fertilize themselves, while others rely on pollen from genetically different plants. Many populations even contain a mixture of both strategies. But scientists have long debated whether this mixed approach is truly stable or simply a temporary stage on the way from one reproductive strategy to another. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-reproductive-strategies-easily-thought.html Plants & Animals Mon, 26 Oct 2026 11:00:01 EDT news711967938 What seabirds eat might seem like a good starting point for identifying species that tend to accumulate plastic in their digestive systems. Yet a recent global analysis suggests that mapping the evolutionary relatives of birds could offer better clues than their diets or feeding methods alone. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-seabird-family-tree-species-accumulate.html Plants & Animals Sat, 24 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711628189 Many of the most potent antibiotics originate from bacteria. A large proportion belong to a class of compounds known as nonribosomal peptides (NRP). They are produced by large bacterial enzyme machineries—the nonribosomal peptide synthetases, or NRPS for short. These function like molecular assembly lines: Similar to the stations in a car factory, where new parts are added to the car at each step, several specialized modules string together amino acid by amino acid to build a peptide. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bacteria-reinvent-weapons-chance-gene.html Evolution Fri, 23 Oct 2026 16:00:01 EDT news711980821 Humans and chimpanzees share almost all their genes. Despite this, our brains have developed in different ways. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that a viral pandemic dating back several million years is likely to be part of the explanation. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-virus-chimpanzee-dna-gene.html Evolution Fri, 23 Oct 2026 14:00:26 EDT news711900901 A new study led by researchers in the Eco-Evo-Devo lab at the University of Ottawa finds that ants can decouple antenna size from both head and body size as they develop into different social castes, revealing how social signals and hormones help shape traits for specialized colony roles. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ants-basic-biology-environments.html Plants & Animals Thu, 22 Oct 2026 16:40:01 EDT news711901981 Why has the yeast Candida auris become a dangerous pathogen worldwide in just a few years? This question is on the minds of many researchers. Carla Schuh and Chaitanya Gokhale from the Biocentre at the University of Würzburg have now summarized the current state of knowledge in a review article in the journal mSphere. To that end, they analyzed around 180 studies by other researchers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-candida-auris-harbinger-dangerous-fungal.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 19:00:01 EDT news711814201 A new study from Indiana University shows that being in a positive mood leads orangutans to value what they learned more strongly. The study comes from the lab of Erica Cartmill, professor of animal behavior, anthropology and cognitive science in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington, and was led by Daan Laméris, a postdoctoral researcher at IU. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-laughter-orangutans-rewards.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:00:12 EDT news711793621 Clostridium botulinum bacteria produce a potent neurotoxin called botulinum toxin, which causes the serious illness botulism. The toxin attacks the nervous system, leaving the body unable to control its muscles and making every breath a struggle. Without immediate treatment, botulism can be fatal. Humans, however, have managed to domesticate this dangerous bacterium to do their bidding. Over more than 90 years, biologists have been able to turn a wild microbe into an efficient factory for medical, military and cosmetic products like Botox. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-humans-domesticated-bacterium-botox-treatments.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:50:01 EDT news711814360 The glacial Arctic Ocean was not a barren ice desert but a breeding ground for the evolution of cold adaptation in marine fish. This is the main conclusion of a new scientific publication from Stockholm University that examines small fish bones found in deep-sea sediments during an expedition aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-fish-bones-reveal-arctic.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:20:01 EDT news711803702 Over the past 30 years, Swiss barn owls have become more reddish-brown and more heavily spotted. By analyzing the genomes of more than 3,000 birds, scientists at the University of Lausanne identified the genetic variants linked to these changes in plumage and revealed natural selection at work. Their findings, published in Nature Communications, show that evolution can happen rapidly in the wild. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-swiss-barn-owls-gradually.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:00:10 EDT news711803641 Keeping to warm climates throughout their 250-million-year history may have helped crocodiles and their relatives survive the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, finds a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-climates-crocodiles-outlast-dinosaurs.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:00:49 EDT news711792541 Insects belong to a broader group of six-legged animals called hexapods. This group also includes other less well-known, small animals, including diplurans or two-pronged bristletails, wingless relatives of insects with two rear projections called cerci that resemble feelers or pincers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-giant-jurassic-fossil-evolution-legged.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711793855 In the early 1980s, scientists observed an anomaly. Embedded within cell membranes, they identified ion channels with extraordinarily high conductance. These so-called "BK" (Big K, or Big Potassium) channels had roughly 10 times the unitary conductance (i.e., conductance per individual channel molecule) of other potassium channels, enabling much more efficient, rapid transport of potassium ions. And while later structural characterization explained how this happened, no one could understand why. That is, until now. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-current-calcium-longstanding-ion-channel.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 05:00:06 EDT news711713221 In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many households wiped down groceries with disinfectant before putting them away. Hand sanitizer was in short supply. With little information on how the virus spread, people became more cautious of germs from other people. A new University of California San Diego study suggests that humans may not be alone in changing behavior after experiencing a disease threat. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-humans-primates-cautious-germs-viral.html Plants & Animals Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:00:16 EDT news711638425 Legend has it that a giant elfin, owl-like creature called the chickcharney haunts the islands of the Bahamas. Those who encounter this cryptid on cordial terms are said to be blessed with good luck. Those who disrespect the chickcharney, however, don't fare as well. "If you see one shoe in the field, it means that chickcharney came, picked up this person and took them away," said Jessica Oswald, recounting a story she was told in the Bahamas. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-caribbean-islands-center-diversity-barn.html Evolution Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:00:04 EDT news711714482 Cephalopods, like the octopus, have specialized arms and suckers, but how these structures evolved from the simple bodies of their mollusk ancestors remains a mystery. Researchers from the University of Tokyo compared gene activity during embryonic development of cuttlefish, octopus and snail body parts. They found that several genes associated with appendage patterning showed expression along developing cephalopod arms, but no comparable patterns in developing suckers. Developing suckers instead expressed Ets1, a gene associated with early embryonic development in mollusks. The findings suggest cephalopods evolved suckers by reusing existing genes in new ways. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-octopus-cuttlefish-suckers-evolved-repurposing.html Plants & Animals Tue, 20 Oct 2026 09:30:01 EDT news711634621 New research from the University of St Andrews has shed light on the evolution of an important yet thus far poorly understood group of marine invertebrate animals—brachiopods. The work, published in Science Advances, presents the first comprehensive phylogenomic analysis of all five extant brachiopod orders and related lineages. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-oldest-animals-earth-common-wormlike.html Evolution Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:00:07 EDT news711622357 Infecting a maize plant is no simple task for a fungal pathogen such as Ustilago maydis. A group of researchers led by Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has now uncovered how the fungus detects that it has successfully entered its host. This signal triggers changes in fungal growth, as the researchers report in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-unwittingly-fungal-pathogens.html Evolution Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:20:10 EDT news711621008 Paired appendages—the pectoral and pelvic fins of fishes and the forelimbs and hindlimbs of tetrapods—were a major innovation in vertebrate evolution. Their emergence greatly expanded the ways vertebrates could move through their environments and ultimately provided the developmental foundation for the evolution of limbs. Yet how the genetic system responsible for building paired appendages was assembled during evolution remains an unresolved question. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-hox-code-reveals-developmental.html Evolution Mon, 19 Oct 2026 10:00:22 EDT news711619981 A new study has found that adaptive molecular convergence—the process by which distantly related or unrelated species evolve the same genomic changes—is not as rare as previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-molecular-convergence-common-previously-thought.html Plants & Animals Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:30:01 EDT news711377041 Researchers at the University of Miami have identified a group of previously unknown viruses that bridge an evolutionary gap between viruses and cellular protein compartments, a discovery with implications for both biotechnology and scientists' understanding of the origins of life. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-newly-viruses-reveal-evolutionary-link.html Evolution Thu, 15 Oct 2026 19:40:10 EDT news711297722 The spectacled cobra (Naja naja) is one of India's "big four" snakes responsible for most serious snakebite cases. It is currently considered one species, which lives across much of South Asia, with regional differences in color, hood markings and venom. However, it's still unclear which regional cobra populations represent separate evolutionary groups. A new study published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution has helped parse out which groups have different lineages, and when and where they may have diverged from their ancestors. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-india-cobras-genetic-mainland-sri.html Plants & Animals Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:20:21 EDT news711282094 They can't fly or swim, so why do their closest relatives appear on different continents? Grey Gustafson, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, discovered through DNA sequencing that the ancestors of some of today's tiger beetles existed in South America and Africa before the two continents separated. What's more, North America's largest tiger beetles are related to these ancestral South American giant tiger beetles. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mystery-flightless-beetle-transatlantic-journey.html Evolution Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:20:11 EDT news711279724 A research team led by Dr. Lorenzo Marchetti of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin described the earliest archosauriform footprints (Pachychirotherium gardenaensis) from the GEOPARC Bletterbach—UNESCO World Heritage Dolomites, Italy. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-fossil-footprints-reveal-dinosaur-ancestors.html Evolution Thu, 15 Oct 2026 10:20:15 EDT news711275896 While many dinosaurs were fearsome predators with razor-sharp teeth, others were peaceful herbivores munching on plants. We can now add a new species to the list of plant-eaters, Infernogallus jamesi. Its name means hell chicken, and its fossilized remains were found in the Hell Creek Formation, a fossil-rich rock formation extending across parts of Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota. And it is providing fresh insights into how some dinosaur diets evolved. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-toothless-hell-chicken-dinosaur-fruit.html Evolution Wed, 14 Oct 2026 13:10:02 EDT news711200552