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.
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.
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.
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.
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