Feature Channels: Evolution and Darwin

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Released: 12-Apr-2023 2:05 PM EDT
Scientists uncover the amazing way sandgrouse hold water in their feathers
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Many birds’ feathers are remarkably efficient at shedding water — so much so that “like water off a duck’s back” is a common expression.

Released: 12-Apr-2023 1:00 PM EDT
Study compares de novo proteins with randomly produced proteins
University of Münster

Proteins are components of every cell. How they have changed in the course of evolution for the purpose of taking on new functions in the body, has long been a subject of research.

Newswise: Starting small and simple - key to success for evolution of mammals
Released: 12-Apr-2023 12:50 PM EDT
Starting small and simple - key to success for evolution of mammals
University of Birmingham

The ancestors of modern mammals managed to evolve into one of the most successful animal lineages – the key was to start out small and simple, a new study reveals.

Newswise: Building Blocks of Life on the Atlantis Massif
Released: 12-Apr-2023 10:05 AM EDT
Building Blocks of Life on the Atlantis Massif
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

How and where life began 3.5 billion years ago is still a mystery, but there are two things of which scientists are almost certain. First, for much of that time, life on Earth was almost exclusively microbial. Second, there must have been prebiotic precursor compounds such as amino acids, organic acids, and lipids available to jumpstart the formation of DNA, enzymes, and cell walls, and to set life on a path leading to the complex forms we see today.

Newswise: Jellyfish and fruit flies shed light on the origin of hunger regulation
Released: 11-Apr-2023 2:05 PM EDT
Jellyfish and fruit flies shed light on the origin of hunger regulation
Tohoku University

Decades' worth of research has shown that the motivation to feed, i.e., hunger and feelings of fullness, is controlled by hormones and small proteins called neuropeptides.

Newswise: Woolly mammoths evolved smaller ears and woolier coats over the 700,000 years that they roamed the Siberian steppes
Released: 7-Apr-2023 4:15 PM EDT
Woolly mammoths evolved smaller ears and woolier coats over the 700,000 years that they roamed the Siberian steppes
Cell Press

A team of researchers compared the genomes of woolly mammoths with modern day elephants to find out what made woolly mammoths unique, both as individuals and as a species. The investigators report April 7 in the journal Current Biology that many of the woolly mammoth’s trademark features—including their woolly coats and large fat deposits—were already genetically encoded in the earliest woolly mammoths, but these and other traits became more defined over the species’ 700,000+ year existence.

Newswise: Curious about cottontails, researchers hop into hare study
Released: 5-Apr-2023 9:30 AM EDT
Curious about cottontails, researchers hop into hare study
West Virginia University

A pair of West Virginia University researchers, Amy Welsh and Chris Rota with the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, are studying the habits and habitats of two West Virginia lagomorphs: the Appalachian cottontail and the snowshoe hare.

Released: 4-Apr-2023 1:35 PM EDT
The first map of the Microverse
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Whether in hot springs, in the human intestine or in the deep sea – microorganisms colonise almost every place on earth, sometimes under extreme conditions.

Released: 29-Mar-2023 7:25 PM EDT
Earth prefers to serve life in XXS and XXL sizes
University of British Columbia

Life comes in all shapes in sizes, but some sizes are more popular than others, new research from the University of British Columbia has found.

Released: 29-Mar-2023 4:10 PM EDT
Scientists discover hidden crab diversity among coral reefs
University of Florida

The Indo-West Pacific is the largest, most biodiverse marine ecosystem on Earth, and many of the species it supports have comparably wide ranges. Writing in “The Origin of Species,” Charles Darwin noted that “… many fish range from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean, and many shells are common to the eastern islands of the Pacific and the eastern shores of Africa, on almost exactly opposite meridians of latitude.”

Released: 28-Mar-2023 5:40 PM EDT
Extinction of steam locomotives derails assumptions about biological evolution
University of Kansas

Bruce Lieberman, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology and senior curator of invertebrate paleontology at the KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum, sought to use steam-engine history to test the merits of “competitive exclusion,” a long-held idea in paleontology that species can drive other species to extinction through competition.

Newswise: Coffee plantations limit birds’ diets
Released: 22-Mar-2023 11:50 PM EDT
Coffee plantations limit birds’ diets
University of Utah

A new study led by researchers at the University of Utah explores a record of birds’ diets preserved in their feathers and radio tracking of their movements to find that birds eat far fewer invertebrates in coffee plantations than in forests, suggesting that the disturbance of their ecosystem significantly impacts the birds’ dietary options.

Newswise: Babies or beauty?
Released: 22-Mar-2023 4:00 PM EDT
Babies or beauty?
Stockholm University

A new study published in Science Advances has not only revealed that an ALHS in Colias butterflies has an ancient origin, but also determined the mechanisms contributing to its persistence over millions of generations.

Released: 22-Mar-2023 11:50 AM EDT
Imaging captures social dynamics of 'pee-shy' mice
Cornell University

Urine scent marks are the original social media, allowing animals to advertise their location, status and identity. Now Cornell research is shining a new light – via thermal imaging of mice – on how this behavior changes depending on shifting social conditions.

Newswise: How the
Released: 21-Mar-2023 2:10 PM EDT
How the "marsupial sabertooth" thylacosmilus saw its world
American Museum of Natural History

A new study investigates how an extinct, carnivorous marsupial relative with canines so large they extended across the top of its skull could hunt effectively despite having wide-set eyes, like a cow or a horse.

Released: 20-Mar-2023 1:45 PM EDT
New eyes discovered in trilobites
University of Cologne

Trilobites, prehistoric sea creatures, had so-called median eyes, single eyes on their foreheads, in addition to their compound eyes, research conducted by Dr Brigitte Schoenemann at the University of Cologne’s Institute of Zoology and Professor Dr Euan Clarkson at the University of Edinburgh has now found out.

Released: 15-Mar-2023 2:35 PM EDT
Rapid surge in highly contagious killer fungus poses new threat to amphibians across Africa
Frontiers

Mass fungus infections that drive populations worldwide to near-collapse don’t just occur in science fiction.

Newswise: New Fossil Analysis Reveals Dinosaur with Record-Holding 15-Meter-Long Neck
13-Mar-2023 9:00 AM EDT
New Fossil Analysis Reveals Dinosaur with Record-Holding 15-Meter-Long Neck
Stony Brook University

An international scientific team led by Stony Brook University paleontologist Andrew J. Moore, PhD, has revealed that a Late Jurassic Chinese sauropod known as Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum sported a 15-meter-long neck. The details will be published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology and provide fresh insights on the evolution of the iconic sauropod body.

Newswise: Brown widow spiders' aggression likely driver of black widow decline
Released: 13-Mar-2023 2:10 PM EDT
Brown widow spiders' aggression likely driver of black widow decline
Entomological Society of America (ESA)

Black widow spiders have earned a fearsome reputation for their venomous bite. But in parts of the southern United States these spiders have much to fear themselves—from spider relatives who really don't like their company.

Newswise: Discovery of oldest known fossil gnat shows how insects adapted to a postapocalyptic world
Released: 10-Mar-2023 11:05 AM EST
Discovery of oldest known fossil gnat shows how insects adapted to a postapocalyptic world
University of Oxford

A new fossil discovery dating from ‘just’ a few million years after the greatest mass extinction provides the earliest evidence of the insect group that includes mosquitoes and flies

Newswise: Human temporal lobes are not very large in comparison with other primates
Released: 6-Mar-2023 7:35 PM EST
Human temporal lobes are not very large in comparison with other primates
Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH)

It had been thought to date that the species Homo sapiens has disproportionately large temporal lobes compared to other anthropoid primates, the group including anthropomorphic monkeys and apes. A new study, one of whose authors is Emiliano Bruner, a paleoneurologist at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), contradicts that hypothesis.

Released: 3-Mar-2023 11:05 AM EST
When ‘good genes’ go bad: how sexual conflict can cause population collapse
Imperial College London

Males of a species evolving traits for sexual conflict can cause problems for females, and, ultimately, the whole population.

Newswise: Most detailed geological model reveals Earth’s past 100 million years
28-Feb-2023 12:05 PM EST
Most detailed geological model reveals Earth’s past 100 million years
University of Sydney

Climate, tectonics and time combine to create powerful forces that craft the face of our planet. Add the gradual sculpting of the Earth’s surface by rivers and what to us seems solid as rock is constantly changing.

Newswise: From anti-antibiotics to extinction therapy: how evolutionary thinking can transform medicine
Released: 28-Feb-2023 1:15 PM EST
From anti-antibiotics to extinction therapy: how evolutionary thinking can transform medicine
Frontiers

The word ‘evolution’ may bring to mind dusty dinosaur bones, but it impacts our health every day.

Newswise: Jurassic shark – Shark from the Jurassic period was already highly evolved
Released: 28-Feb-2023 11:05 AM EST
Jurassic shark – Shark from the Jurassic period was already highly evolved
University of Vienna

Cartilaginous fish have changed much more in the course of their evolutionary history than previously believed. Evidence for this thesis has been provided by new fossils of a ray-like shark, Protospinax annectans, which demonstrate that sharks were already highly evolved in the Late Jurassic. This is the result of a recent study by an international research group led by palaeobiologist Patrick L. Jambura from the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna, which was recently published in the journal Diversity.

Newswise: Dinosaur claws used for digging and display
Released: 27-Feb-2023 5:05 AM EST
Dinosaur claws used for digging and display
University of Bristol

Dinosaur claws had many functions, but now a team from the University of Bristol and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing has shown some predatory dinosaurs used their claws for digging or even for display.

Newswise: Deadly waves: Researchers document evolution of plague over hundreds of years in medieval Denmark
22-Feb-2023 10:50 AM EST
Deadly waves: Researchers document evolution of plague over hundreds of years in medieval Denmark
McMaster University

Scientists who study the origins and evolution of the plague have examined hundreds of ancient human teeth from Denmark, seeking to address longstanding questions about its arrival, persistence and spread within Scandinavia.

   
Newswise: New insights into chordate body plan development answer long-standing questions on evolution
Released: 23-Feb-2023 7:50 PM EST
New insights into chordate body plan development answer long-standing questions on evolution
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University - OIST

Life began on earth more than 3.5 billion years ago, but the history of humans and other vertebrates accounts for only a fraction of this timescale.

Released: 22-Feb-2023 6:20 PM EST
Bow-and-arrow, technology of the first modern humans in Europe 54,000 years ago at Mandrin, France
University of Connecticut

If the emergence of mechanically propelled weapons in prehistory is commonly perceived as one of the hallmarks of the advance of modern human populations into the European continent, the existence of archery has always been more difficult to trace.

Newswise: Passerine bird takes advantage of human settlements
Released: 22-Feb-2023 10:15 AM EST
Passerine bird takes advantage of human settlements
Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft)

Daurian redstarts move their nesting sites closer to or even inside human settlements when cuckoos are around.

Newswise: Geckos know their own odor
Released: 20-Feb-2023 1:05 PM EST
Geckos know their own odor
University of Bern

Geckos can use their tongue to differentiate their own odor from that of other members of their species, as researchers from the University of Bern have shown in a new experimental study.

Newswise: Experts have discovered how zebra stripes work
Released: 20-Feb-2023 4:05 AM EST
Experts have discovered how zebra stripes work
University of Bristol

Researchers at the University of Bristol have found why zebra fur is thinly striped and sharply outlined.

Newswise: Feathered ‘fingerprints’ reveal potential motivation for
migratory patterns of endangered seabirds
Released: 15-Feb-2023 8:05 PM EST
Feathered ‘fingerprints’ reveal potential motivation for migratory patterns of endangered seabirds
University of South Australia

World first research from CSIRO and the University of South Australia shows that the feathers of seabirds such as the Wandering Albatross can provide clues about their long-distance foraging, which could help protect these species from further decline.

Newswise: Back to the time of the first Homo Sapiens with a futuristic clock, the new Radiocarbon 3.0
Released: 15-Feb-2023 6:50 PM EST
Back to the time of the first Homo Sapiens with a futuristic clock, the new Radiocarbon 3.0
Universita di Bologna

It is called Radiocarbon 3.0: it is the newest method developments in radiocarbon dating, and promises to reveal valuable new insights about key events in the earliest human history, starting with the interaction between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals in Europe.

Released: 13-Feb-2023 12:50 PM EST
Fish Don’t Dither: A New Study Investigates Danger-Evasion Tactics
University of Southern California (USC)

Decisions are difficult. Humans often find themselves deliberating between multiple conflicting alternatives, or frustratingly fixated upon a single option.

Released: 13-Feb-2023 11:25 AM EST
European big cat population threatened with extinction as genetics show the population is near collapse
Frontiers

Scientists warn that if action isn’t taken soon, the Eurasian lynx will vanish from France. This elusive wild cat, which was reintroduced to Switzerland in the 1970s, moved across the French border by the end of the decade.

Newswise: 2.9-million-year-old butchery site reopens case of who made first stone tools
Released: 9-Feb-2023 7:25 PM EST
2.9-million-year-old butchery site reopens case of who made first stone tools
Smithsonian Institution

Along the shores of Africa’s Lake Victoria in Kenya roughly 2.9 million years ago, early human ancestors used some of the oldest stone tools ever found to butcher hippos and pound plant material, according to new research led by scientists with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Queens College, CUNY, as well as the National Museums of Kenya, Liverpool John Moores University and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Released: 7-Feb-2023 4:10 PM EST
Have model organisms evolved too far?
University of Birmingham

A model organism used in laboratories for the past 100 years has evolved so extensively that it may no longer be fit for purpose.

Newswise: Using environmental DNA for to survey the populations of endangered species
Released: 7-Feb-2023 4:05 PM EST
Using environmental DNA for to survey the populations of endangered species
Okayama University

Changes in river systems, overfishing and the appearance of new, invasive species can lead to a drastic decline in the number of native fish inhabiting aquatic ecosystems.

Released: 6-Feb-2023 11:05 AM EST
Lured by bright colors: Wild bee queens face death in commercial hives
Cornell University

While testing how well commercial bumblebees pollinate early spring crops, Cornell University researchers made a surprising discovery: dead wild bumblebee queens in the hives, an average of 10 per nest box.

Newswise: Ancient fossils shed new light on evolution of sea worm
Released: 1-Feb-2023 1:05 PM EST
Ancient fossils shed new light on evolution of sea worm
Durham University

Ancient fossils have shed new light on a type of sea worm linking it to the time of an evolutionary explosion that gave rise to modern animal life.

Newswise: To Know Where the Birds Are Going, Researchers Turn to Citizen Science and Machine Learning
Released: 1-Feb-2023 9:35 AM EST
To Know Where the Birds Are Going, Researchers Turn to Citizen Science and Machine Learning
Cornell University

Computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in collaboration with biologists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recently announced in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution a new, predictive model that is capable of accurately forecasting where a migratory bird will go next—one of the most difficult tasks in biology. The model is called BirdFlow, and while it is still being perfected, it should be available to scientists within the year and will eventually make its way to the general public.

Newswise: Songbird species work together to mob predator owls, but only strike when the time is right
Released: 31-Jan-2023 1:15 PM EST
Songbird species work together to mob predator owls, but only strike when the time is right
Frontiers

Fleeing isn’t the only way by which songbirds can protect themselves against predators.

Newswise: Rapid plant evolution may make coastal regions more susceptible to flooding and sea level rise, study shows
Released: 26-Jan-2023 3:05 PM EST
Rapid plant evolution may make coastal regions more susceptible to flooding and sea level rise, study shows
University of Notre Dame

Evolution has occurred more rapidly than previously thought in the Chesapeake Bay wetlands, which may decrease the chance that coastal marshes can withstand future sea level rise, researchers at the University of Notre Dame and collaborators demonstrated in a recent publication in Science.

Newswise: Humans have influenced the growth of blue-green algae in lakes for thousands of years
Released: 25-Jan-2023 2:45 PM EST
Humans have influenced the growth of blue-green algae in lakes for thousands of years
GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam

In recent years, there have been increasing reports of toxic blue-green algae blooms in summer, even in German lakes, caused by climate warming and increased nutrient inputs.

23-Jan-2023 2:05 PM EST
It isn’t what you know, it’s what you think you know
PLOS

A survey of over 2,000 adults in the UK identifies potential pitfalls of science communication.

   
Newswise: Squirrels that gamble win big when it comes to evolutionary fitness
17-Jan-2023 8:00 AM EST
Squirrels that gamble win big when it comes to evolutionary fitness
University of Michigan

Imagine overhearing the Powerball lottery winning numbers, but you didn't know when those numbers would be called—just that at some point in the next 10 years or so, they would be. Despite the financial cost of playing those numbers daily for that period, the payoff is big enough to make it worthwhile.

Newswise: Early humans: Annual cycles in tooth enamel provide insights into life histories
Released: 17-Jan-2023 1:00 PM EST
Early humans: Annual cycles in tooth enamel provide insights into life histories
Goethe University Frankfurt

If you take a magnifying glass and a torch and look at your teeth very carefully in the mirror, in places you can spot a pattern of fine, parallel lines running across your teeth. These correspond to the striae of Retzius that mark the growth of our tooth enamel.

   
Newswise: Island tiger snakes’ skulls adapt to eat large sea bird chicks
Released: 17-Jan-2023 12:05 AM EST
Island tiger snakes’ skulls adapt to eat large sea bird chicks
University of Adelaide

A study by researchers from the University of Adelaide and other institutions has found that in a population of island tiger snakes the bones in their jaws increase in length after feeding on large prey, while their mainland counterparts show no change.

Released: 16-Jan-2023 3:30 PM EST
How the last 12,000 years have shaped what humans are today
Ohio State University

While humans have been evolving for millions of years, the past 12,000 years have been among the most dynamic and impactful for the way we live today, according to an anthropologist who organized a special journal feature on the topic. Our modern world all started with the advent of agriculture, said Clark Spencer Larsen, professor of anthropology.

   


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