The passenger pigeon is famous for the enormity of its historical population in North America (estimated at 3 to 5 billion) and for its rapid extinction in the face of mass slaughter by humans. Yet it remains a mystery why ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 16, 2017
2
124
Human activities could change the pace of evolution, similar to what occurred 66 million years ago when a giant asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, leaving modern birds as their only descendants. That's one conclusion drawn ...
Evolution
Sep 21, 2017
1
143
Human evolution can seem like a phenomenon of the distant past which applies only to our ancestors living millions of years ago. But human evolution is ongoing. To evolve simply means that mutations – the accidental changes ...
Evolution
Sep 12, 2017
0
52
Starvation for essential elements determines the pattern of genetic variation.
Evolution
Jun 8, 2017
0
6
Promiscuity mixes up the gene pool and dilutes genetic differences between populations, slowing down the evolution of new species, says new research by an international team led by the University of Bath's Milner Centre for ...
Evolution
Apr 10, 2017
0
241
DNA holds the story of our ancestry – how we're related to the familiar faces at family reunions as well as more ancient affairs: how we're related to our closest nonhuman relatives, chimpanzees; how Homo sapiens mated ...
Evolution
Apr 7, 2017
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37
Scientists at the University of Chicago have created the first genetically modified animals containing reconstructed ancient genes, which they used to test the evolutionary effects of genetic changes that happened in the ...
Evolution
Jan 13, 2017
1
836
Animals live in close association with microorganisms, carrying beneficial bacteria while coping with pathogenic infections. Now, in a study published this week in PLoS Genetics, researchers from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência ...
Evolution
Oct 4, 2016
0
0
A fundamental question in evolutionary research is: is a geographic barrier dividing the original population into two genetically separated populations required for the origin of new species? Or is so-called sympatric speciation ...
Evolution
Jul 5, 2016
0
8
A difference of one hundredth of a percent in fitness is sufficient to select between winners and losers in evolution. For the first time researchers have quantified the tiny selective forces that shape bacterial genomes. ...
Evolution
Mar 10, 2016
0
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