The fossil record over the last half a billion years shows biodiversity as a zigzagging pattern of species births and extinctions. For decades scientist have attempted to answer the question: Which rules supreme—life or ...
Evolution
Jul 1, 2022
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If you saw the first episode of David Attenborough's new BBC series Perfect Planet, you will have seen the astounding bloodsucking behaviour of the vampire finches. These small birds exist only on two remote islands in the ...
Ecology
Jan 19, 2021
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Despite its name, the Crimson Rosella is perhaps Australia's most colour-variable bird and a cause of this striking and beautiful diversity seems to be a disease that's potentially deadly to many other parrots.
Plants & Animals
Sep 26, 2014
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In Lewis Carroll's 1871 classic novel Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice: "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."
Plants & Animals
May 20, 2014
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Biologists quote Lewis Carroll when arguing that survival is a constant struggle to adapt and evolve. Is that true, or do groups die out because they experience a run of bad luck? Charles Marshall and Tiago Quental of UC ...
Evolution
Jun 20, 2013
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(Phys.org)—The dominant factors in the rise and fall of the diversity of life on Earth has been a point of debate for scientists nearly as long as they have studied the processes of evolution.
Earth Sciences
Jan 10, 2013
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(Phys.org)—The relationship between species determines how rapidly they evolve. Parasites and their hosts coevolve more rapidly, and partners in a mutualistic relationship can evolve more slowly. But this view is obviously ...
Evolution
Sep 24, 2012
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(PhysOrg.com) -- It seems we may have parasites to thank for the existence of sex as we know it. Indiana University biologists have found that, although sexual reproduction between two individuals is costly from an evolutionary ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of thousands of species of plants and animals suggests new species may arise from rare events instead of through an accumulation of small changes made in response to changes in the environment.
