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Evolution news
Researcher finds that wood frogs evolved rapidly in response to road salts
When we think of evolution, we think of a process that happens over hundreds or thousands of years. In research published in Ecology and Evolution a team led by Rick Relyea, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and David ...
Evolution
6 hours ago
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Evolutionary biologists show that the color variants of female cuckoos are based on ancient mutations
Every cuckoo is an adopted child—raised by foster parents, into whose nest the cuckoo mother smuggled her egg. The cuckoo mother is aided in this subterfuge by her resemblance to a bird of prey. There are two variants of ...
Plants & Animals
6 hours ago
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How evolution has optimized the magnetic sensor in birds
Migratory birds are able to navigate and orientate with astonishing accuracy using various mechanisms, including a magnetic compass. A team led by biologists Dr. Corinna Langebrake and Prof. Dr. Miriam Liedvogel from the ...
Plants & Animals
7 hours ago
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A key gene helps explain how the ability to glide has emerged over-and-over during marsupial evolution
People say "When pigs fly" to describe the impossible. But even if most mammals are landlubbers, the ability to glide or fly has evolved again and again during mammalian evolution, in species ranging from bats to flying squirrels. ...
Evolution
9 hours ago
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Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago, pushing back previous oldest dated example
Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago in a group of marine invertebrates called octocorals, according to the results of a new study from scientists with the Smithsonian's National Museum ...
Evolution
Apr 23, 2024
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Flat faces and difficulty breathing: How pet trends have harmed animal health—and what we can we do about it
Dogs come in all shapes and sizes. We've molded some of them to have large protruding eyes, sloping backs and shortened legs through selective breeding.
Evolution
Apr 23, 2024
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Advances in understanding the evolution of stomach loss in agastric fishes
Living beings can evolve to lose biological structures due to potential survival benefits from such losses. For example, certain groups of ray-finned fishes show such regressive evolution—medakas, minnows, puffera, and ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 23, 2024
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Researchers report on mechanisms of gene regulatory divergence between species
Closely related animal species can look physically different, but you might be surprised to learn that those differences can result not only from DNA sequence changes that alter proteins' structure or function, but also because ...
Evolution
Apr 23, 2024
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Same species, different sizes: Rare evolution in action spotted in island bats
A University of Melbourne researcher has spotted a rare evolutionary phenomenon happening rapidly in real time in bats living in the Solomon Islands.
Evolution
Apr 22, 2024
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Scientists construct organo-phosphatic shells of brachiopods
Biomineralized columns, stacked in layers like a sandwich gave Cambrian brachiopod shells their strength and flexibility 520 million years ago.
Evolution
Apr 18, 2024
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Instinct for 'fight or flight' may be much older than we thought
Evidence in lampreys for the presence of a rudimentary sympathetic nervous system, previously thought to be unique to jawed vertebrates, has been presented in Nature. The finding may prompt a rethink of the origins of the ...
Evolution
Apr 18, 2024
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Researchers identify genetic variant that helped shape human skull base evolution
Humans, Homo sapiens, have unique features compared with other closely related hominin species and primates, including the shape of the base of the skull. The evolutionary changes underlying these features were significant ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why
Lost your keys? Can't remember where you parked the car? If only you had the memory of a mountain chickadee.
Plants & Animals
Apr 17, 2024
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How interspecies competition led to a 'bizarre' pattern in our own evolutionary tree
Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins—and produced a "bizarre" evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage—according to a new University of Cambridge study that revises the start ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Marine plankton behavior could predict future marine extinctions, study finds
Marine communities migrated to Antarctica during the Earth's warmest period in 66 million years long before a mass-extinction event.
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Amazon butterflies show how new species can evolve from hybridization
If evolution was originally depicted as a tree, with different species branching off as new blooms, then new research shows how the branches may actually be more entangled. In "Hybrid speciation driven by multilocus introgression ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Discovery of bacterial proteins that induce asexual reproduction in insects
From microbes in the human gut to symbiotic algae in coral reefs, research in recent decades has increasingly revealed the pivotal roles that microorganisms (or microbial species) play in shaping the biology of host organisms ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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New study sheds light on the structure and evolution of an enzyme in psychoactive fungi
An international research team has investigated the biosynthesis of psilocybin, the main ingredient of hallucinogenic mushrooms. They gained new insights into the structure and reaction mechanism of the enzyme PsiM. It plays ...
Evolution
Apr 16, 2024
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How do Australia's desert animals avoid inbreeding during dry spells?
Some Australian desert mammals use distinct strategies to promote evolutionary fitness in response to changing environmental conditions over short timescales, according to a new study.
Evolution
Apr 16, 2024
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Seed ferns experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago, paleontologists find
According to a research team led by paleontologists from the University of Vienna, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several ...
Evolution
Apr 16, 2024
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Other news
Researchers show it's possible to teach old magnetic cilia new tricks
Study suggests that cells possess a hidden communication system
Imaging technique shows new details of peptide structures
Researchers uncover 'parallel universe' in tomato genetics
These giant, prehistoric salmon had tusk-like teeth
Lunar landforms indicate geologically recent seismic activity on the moon
New method could cut waste from drug production
Giant virus discovered in wastewater treatment plant infects deadly parasite
A shade closer to more efficient organic photovoltaics
Scientists tune the entanglement structure in an array of qubits
Testing how well biomarkers work: New fluorescence microscopy method can improve resolution down to the Ångström scale
