Amazonia is home to the greatest number of species on earth, many now threatened, but a new study published October 22 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Jason Weir from the University of Toronto and Trevor Price from the University of Chicago hammers home Amazonia’s importance, showing that it is not only a place with many species, but one where it has taken an exceptionally long time for new species to form.
Compared with other world groups, the DNA of Melanesian populations carries some of the largest percentage of ancestry from now-extinct Neanderthals and Denisovans. A genomic study of Melanesians suggests that certain genetic variants inherited from archaic human-like species may have helped these modern people adapt to their tropical island environment.
Discovery provides valuable insight into evolution of theropod dinosaurs around the world
Old museum specimens are giving researchers fresh insights into endangered species
A research team led by the University of Washington has developed a model that could help foresters predict which nonnative insect invasions will be most problematic. This could help managers decide where to allocate resources to avoid widespread tree death.
University at Buffalo researchers discovered that the human diet — a result of increased meat consumption, cooking and agriculture — has led to stark differences in the saliva of humans compared to that of other primates.
With the help of new technologies, a team led by the University of Washington has confirmed that piranhas lose and regrow all the teeth on one side of their face multiple times throughout their lives. How they do it may help explain why the fish go to such efforts to replace their teeth.
An international team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has published a new study examining a 430,000-year-old cranium of a human ancestor that was previously described as deaf, representing the oldest case of deafness in human prehistory.
There may be a connection between food comas—resting after eating—and the formation of long-term memories, a team of neuroscientists concludes based on its study on brain activity in sea slugs.
Fossils discovered in Thailand represent a new genus and species of predatory dinosaur, according to a study released October 9, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Duangsuda Chokchaloemwong of Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University, Thailand and colleagues.
The last woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean; they died out 4,000 years ago within a very short time.
Chemists at Saint Louis University, in collaboration with scientists at the College of Charleston and the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution, found that deliquescent minerals, which dissolve in water they absorb from humid air, can assist the construction of proteins from simpler building blocks during cycles timed to mimic day and night on the early Earth.
Scientists have pieced together the first complete picture of the Florida panther genome – work that could serve to protect that endangered population and other endangered species going forward.
An international research team led by Giuseppe Marramà from the Institute of Paleontology of the University of Vienna discovered a new and well-preserved fossil stingray with an exceptional anatomy, which greatly differs from living species. The find provides new insights into the evolution of these animals and sheds light on the recovery of marine ecosystems after the mass extinction occurred 66 million years ago.
Species have few good options when it comes to surviving climate change--they can genetically adapt to new conditions, shift their ranges, or both.
Hurricane Dorian is the latest example of a frightening trend. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, more severe and more widespread as a consequence of climate change. New research from Washington University in St. Louis provides important new insights into how different species may fare under this new normal. Faced with unprecedented change, animals and plants are scrambling to catch up — with mixed results.
The iconic extinct megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon, is an impressive gigantic shark, but new research by DePaul University’s Kenshu Shimada shows scientifically justifiable maximum size for the fossil species to be no more than about 15 meters (nearly 50 feet).
Scientists have gained a new understanding of how tiny, ultra-resilient tardigrades, or “water bears,” are protected in extreme conditions. The researchers discovered that a protein named Dsup binds to chromatin—DNA inside cells—and forms a protective cloud against extreme survival threats such as radiation damage.
Scientists have found exceptionally preserved microbial remains in some of Earth's oldest rocks in Western Australia
If you could travel back in time 100,000 years, you'd find yourself living among multiple groups of humans, including anatomically modern humans
Near an old mining town in Central Europe, known for its picturesque turquoise-blue quarry water, lay Rudapithecus. For 10 million years, the fossilized ape waited in Rudabánya, Hungary, to add its story to the origins of how humans evolved.
Early rice growers unwittingly gave barnyard grass a big hand, helping to give root to a rice imitator that is now considered one of the world’s worst agricultural weeds. New research from Zhejiang University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Washington University in St. Louis provides genomic evidence that barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli) benefited from human cultivation practices, including continuous hand weeding, as it spread from the Yangtze River region about 1,000 years ago.
Valley fever is endemic to hot and dry regions such as the southwestern United States and California’s San Joaquin Valley, but scientists at the University of California, Irvine predict that climate change will cause the fungal infection’s range to more than double in size this century, reaching previously unaffected areas across the western U.
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at McMaster University, has solved a centuries-old mystery of ‘Fraser’s Clawed Frog’, an unusual and elusive species found in West Africa.
Based on an extensive study across environments, from mixed conifer forest to high-desert grassland, the team suggests that microbes aren’t so different from larger, more complex forms of life. That is, in determining species traits, nature takes the lead, while nurture plays a supporting role.
No more than 540 million years ago there was a huge boom in the diversity of animals on Earth. The first larger animals evolved in what is today known as the Cambrian explosion. In the time that followed
A USC scientist and colleagues have identified a new species of giant flying reptile that once soared over what is now North America.
Japan -- Say hello to the common fruit fly: a regular guest in all our homes, feasting on that banana peel you tossed into the garbage a few days ago.
Researchers from Stellenbosch University, South Africa found that tortoises, one of the main herbivores of the daisies
By analysing the fossilised teeth of some of our most ancient ancestors, a team of scientists led by the universities of Bristol (UK) and Lyon (France) have discovered that the first humans significantly breastfed their infants for longer periods than their contemporary relatives.
Acanthocephala are parasitic worms that reproduce in the intestines of various animals, including fish.
A new species of gigantic tumbleweed once predicted to go extinct is not only here to stay -- it's likely to expand its territory.
A global study comparing 2,062 birds finds that, in highly variable environments, birds tend to have either larger or smaller brains relative to their body size. Birds with smaller brains tend to use ecological strategies that are not available to big-brained counterparts. Instead of relying on grey matter to survive, these birds tend to have large bodies, eat readily available food and make lots of babies.
When Earth's species were rapidly diversifying nearly 500 million years ago, that evolution was driven by complex factors including global cooling, more oxygen in the atmosphere, and more nutrients in the oceans.
Scientists have discovered that the building blocks of proteins can stabilize cell membranes. This finding may explain how the first cells emerged from the primordial soup billions of years ago: Protein building blocks could have stabilized membranes against salt and ions present in ancient oceans.
Biologists have developed the first system for determining gene expression based on machine learning. Considered a type of genetic Rosetta Stone for biologists, the new method leverages algorithms trained on a set of known plant genes to determine a species-wide set of transcribed genes, or “expressome,” then creates an atlas of expressible genes. The method carries implications across biology, from drug discovery to plant breeding to evolution.
The largest study ever conducted of its kind has identified where and how to save coral reef communities in the Indo-Pacific, according to an international group of scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other conservation NGOs, government agencies, and universities. The study outlines three viable strategies that can be quickly enacted to help save coral reefs that are threatened by climate change and human impacts.
A genetic mutation that slowed down the development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in two or more children may have triggered a cascade of events leading to acquisition of recursive language and modern imagination 70,000 years ago.
Princeton biologists reverse engineer the microtubules that make up cell walls and spindles
The arrival of humans in New Zealand, some 700 years ago, triggered a wave of extinction among native bird species. Many more species are currently under threat. Recent calculations by scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and Massey University in New Zealand show that it would take at least 50 million years of evolution to restore the biodiversity that has been lost. Their results were published on 5 August in the journal Current Biology.
One of the most exciting discoveries in genome research was that the last common ancestor of all multicellular animals - which lived about 600 million years ago - already possessed an extremely complex genome. Many of the ancestral genes can still be found in modern day species (e.g., human). However, it has long been unclear whether the arrangement of these genes in the genome also had a certain function. In a recent study in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the biologists led by Oleg Simakov and Ulrich Technau show that not only individual genes but also these gene arrangements in the genome have played a key role in the course of animal evolution.
A long-term study of western gorillas in Gabon has revealed an unexpected behavior: they use their teeth to crack open and eat nuts. New research by Adam van Casteren, lecturer in biological anthropology in Arts & Sciences, may have important implications for the way researchers predict the diet of human ancestors based on the shape of their teeth.
It nearly baffled researchers to see amino acids that make up life today link up under lab conditions that mimicked those of pre-life Earth. The result was predecessors to today's proteins. The researchers made it hard on the amino acids by adding non-biological competitors, but nature selected the life chemicals.
For the first time, scientists have unraveled genetic changes that cause rapid fish evolution due to intense harvesting – changes that previously had been invisible to researchers.
MSU scientists show that conservation and construction decisions should rely on multiple approaches to determine waterbird “hotspots,” not just on one analysis method as is often done.
The human ranging style is unique among hominoids. The Mbendjele BaYaka people move from camp to camp every few months, and thus have a large lifetime range of approximately 800 square meters.
Approximately 2.4 billion years ago, the Great Oxidation Event, which dramatically increased the oxygen content in Earth’s atmosphere, paved the way for the rise of all lifeforms that use oxygen to break down nutrients for energy. While scientists agree about when the event happened, they are less certain about exactly how it occurred. Now, however, researchers at Missouri S&T say they’ve discovered a possible trigger for the Great Oxidation Event and the arrival of plants and animals on Earth.
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