Using the largest and most informative molecular phylogenetic dataset ever analysed, evolutionary biologists were able to construct a new phylogenetic tree of jawed vertebrates. This new tree resolves several key relationships ...
Evolution
Jul 24, 2017
0
513
Trap-jaw ants, with their spring-loaded jaws and powerful stings, are among the fiercest insect predators, but they begin their lives as spiny, hairy, fleshy blobs hanging from the ceiling and walls of an underground nest. ...
Plants & Animals
May 9, 2017
0
43
You probably haven't given much thought to how you chew, but the jaw structure and mechanics of almost all modern mammals may have something to do with why we're here today. In a new paper published this week in Scientific ...
Archaeology
Mar 23, 2017
1
9
When we are confronted with the remarkable diversity and complexity of forms among living things—the lightweight and leathery wings of a bat, the dense networks of genes that work together to produce a functional cell—it ...
Evolution
Feb 15, 2017
0
186
Africa is a tough place. It always has been. Especially if you have to fend off gigantic predators like sabre-toothed carnivores in order to survive. And, when you're a small, dog-sized pre-mammalian reptile, sometimes the ...
Archaeology
Feb 13, 2017
1
141
A new study has revealed that gills originated much deeper in evolutionary history than previously believed. The findings support the idea that gills evolved before the last common ancestor of all vertebrates, helping facilitate ...
Archaeology
Feb 9, 2017
0
234
Researchers at Yale University have isolated the brain circuitry that coordinates predatory hunting, according to a study in the January 12 issue of Cell. One set of neurons in the amygdala, the brain's center of emotion ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 12, 2017
2
2880
Within the salty lakes of the Bahama's San Salvador Island is an amazing diversity of fishes that may rival Charles Darwin's finches in the Galapagos.
Evolution
Dec 27, 2016
0
156
Move over, hyenas and saber-toothed cats; there's a mammal with an even stronger bite. A new study by Burke Museum and University of Washington paleontologists describes an early marsupial relative called Didelphodon vorax ...
Archaeology
Dec 8, 2016
1
646
The placoderms were a diverse group of ancient armoured fishes and it's widely believed that they are ancestral to virtually all vertebrates alive today, including humans.
Archaeology
Dec 6, 2016
0
40
