Feature Channels: Evolution and Darwin

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Released: 8-Jan-2019 1:35 PM EST
Variable venom -- why are some snakes deadlier than others?
Trinity College Dublin

An international collaboration led by scientists from the National University of Ireland, Galway, The University of St Andrews, Trinity College Dublin and the Zoological Society of London has uncovered why the venom of some snakes makes them so much deadlier than others.

Released: 8-Jan-2019 12:55 PM EST
How locusts switch colors in different settings
eLife

Scientists have discovered how locusts change their body colour to adapt to different environments, according to new research published in eLife.

Released: 3-Jan-2019 12:10 PM EST
Aarhus University

"What we're looking at is evolution at a structural level. A receptor with a toadstool structure that stems from way back and the common ancestors of insects and humans..."

19-Dec-2018 3:25 PM EST
U-M Howler Monkey Study Examines Mechanisms of New Species Formation
University of Michigan

A new University of Michigan study of interbreeding between two species of howler monkeys in Mexico is yielding insights into the forces that drive the evolution of new species.

Released: 19-Dec-2018 3:25 PM EST
Red wolf DNA found in mysterious Texas canines
Princeton University

Though red wolves were declared extinct in the wild by 1980, a team of biologists has found their DNA in a group of canines living on Galveston Island off the coast of Texas.

Released: 19-Dec-2018 2:00 PM EST
Study Finds Dinosaurs Battled Overheating with Nasal Air-Conditioning
NYIT

Researchers used 3D computer modeling to simulate heat exchange in dinosaurs

Released: 18-Dec-2018 12:10 PM EST
Fossils suggest flowers originated 50 million years earlier than thought
eLife

Scientists have described a fossil plant species that suggests flowers bloomed in the Early Jurassic, more than 174 million years ago, according to new research in the open-access journal eLife.

Released: 18-Dec-2018 11:35 AM EST
Extraordinary 'faithful father' revealed by study of smooth guardian frog of Borneo
University of Kansas

LAWRENCE -- Stay-at-home dads might find their spirit animal in the smooth guardian frog of Borneo. A new pair of research papers authored by an investigator at the University of Kansas shows the male of the smooth guardian frog species (Limnonectes palavanensis) is a kind of amphibian "Mr. Mom" -- an exemplar of male parental care in the animal kingdom.

Released: 17-Dec-2018 4:55 PM EST
'Treasure trove' of dinosaur footprints found in southern England
University of Cambridge

More than 85 well-preserved dinosaur footprints - made by at least seven different species - have been uncovered in East Sussex, representing the most diverse and detailed collection of these trace fossils from the Cretaceous Period found in the UK to date.

Released: 13-Dec-2018 11:55 AM EST
Tale of two trees: New web tool estimates gene trees with ease
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University - OIST

Gene trees, much like family trees, trace the lineage of a particular gene from its deep ancestral roots to its still-growing stems. By comparing gene trees to species trees, which map the evolutionary history of species, scientists can learn which species have which genes, what new functions those genes gained over time, and which functions they may have lost. Now, scientists at the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have unveiled a new tool to perform these analyses quickly and without computational headaches.

Released: 6-Dec-2018 12:45 PM EST
An ancient strain of plague may have led to the decline of Neolithic Europeans
Cell Press

A team of researchers from France, Sweden, and Denmark have identified a new strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, in DNA extracted from 5,000-year-old human remains. Their analyses, publishing December 6 in the journal Cell, suggest that this strain is the closest ever identified to the genetic origin of plague.

3-Dec-2018 1:00 PM EST
Soft Tissue Shows Jurassic Ichthyosaur Was Warm-Blooded, Had Blubber and Camouflage
North Carolina State University

An ancient, dolphin-like marine reptile resembles its distant relative in more than appearance. Molecular and microstructural analysis of a Stenopterygius ichthyosaur reveals that these animals were most likely warm-blooded, had insulating blubber and used their coloration as camouflage from predators.

Released: 5-Dec-2018 11:55 AM EST
University of Konstanz

On 3 December 2018, the laboratory of Professor Axel Meyer, University of Konstanz published new findings of an experimental evolutionary project that ran for 30 years on the genomic mechanisms of sex determination in swordtail fish in the journal "Nature Communications". Dr Paolo Franchini, evolutionary biologist and Junior Research Group Leader at the University of Konstanz is the lead author of this collaboration with the laboratory of Professor Manfred Schartl of the University of Würzburg

Released: 4-Dec-2018 5:00 AM EST
Colombia Tropical Forest Fires Spike After 2016 Peace Accords
Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Fires that contribute to deforestation spiked six-fold in Colombia in the year after an historic 2016 peace agreement ended decades of conflict between FARC guerrilla and government forces, according to a study in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Released: 30-Nov-2018 3:30 PM EST
Study Reveals Peace in Colombia Has an Unexpected Result – Deforestation
Stony Brook University

In a first-of-a-kind study published Nature Ecology & Evolution, scientists provide evidence that implementing the peace accords in Colombia coincided with a spike of fires and deforestation in protected areas.

Released: 30-Nov-2018 11:15 AM EST
How the devil ray got its horns
San Francisco State University

If you ever find yourself staring down a manta ray, you'll probably notice two things right away: the massive, flapping fins that produce the shark cousin's 20-foot wingspan and the two fleshy growths curling out of its head that give it the nickname "devil ray." A new San Francisco State University study shows that these two very different features have the same origin -- a discovery that reflects an important lesson for understanding the diversity of life.

Released: 29-Nov-2018 11:35 AM EST
New study reveals common table salt may have been crucial for the origins of life
Tokyo Institute of Technology

One of the most fundamental unexplained questions in modern science is how life began. Scientists generally believe that simple molecules present in early planetary environments were converted to more complex ones that could have helped jumpstart life by the input of energy from the environment. Scientists consider the early Earth was suffused with many kinds of energy, from the high temperatures produced by volcanoes to the ultraviolet radiation beamed down by the sun.

29-Nov-2018 10:05 AM EST
Human Environmental Effects Favour Cosmopolitan Species Over Local Iconic Species
PLOS

Human habitat modification is favouring the same species everywhere, while unique species are disappearing, finds a study publishing on December 4 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, led by Tim Newbold at University College London and Andy Purvis at the Natural History Museum in London.

Released: 28-Nov-2018 12:15 PM EST
University of Queensland

Predators have been identified as the shaping force behind mutually beneficial relationships between species such as clownfish and anemones. The finding results from a University of Queensland and Deakin University-led study.

Released: 27-Nov-2018 12:50 PM EST
Newly Discovered Wasp Turns Social Spiders Into Zombies
University of British Columbia

It sounds like the plot of the world's tiniest horror movie: deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a newly discovered species of wasp transforms a "social" spider into a zombie-like drone that abandons its colony to do the wasp's bidding.



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