Evolution

Bacteria's Secret Of Adaptation At 'Evolution Canyon'

Bacteria living on opposite sides of a canyon have evolved to cope with different temperatures by altering the make-up of their 'skin', or cell membranes, write scientists who have found that bacteria change these complex and important structures ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 27 2008 - 4:12pm

Divergent Evolution Of Skull And Mandible Shape In Feline And Sabertoothed Cats

In a new study published in the online-open access journal PLoS ONE, Per Christiansen at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, reports the finding that the evolution of skull and mandible shape in sabercats and modern cats were governed by differen ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 30 2008 - 12:14am

Biogeography, Ring Speciation And Crimson Rosellas

A new study published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B investigates the genetic and geographical relationships between different forms of crimson rosellas and the possible ways that these forms may have arisen. Dr Gaynor Dolman of CSIRO's A ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 31 2008 - 8:45am

Anthrasimias Gujaratensis: Tiny 55 Million Year-Old Teeth Show Early Primates Weighed Just 3 Ounces

Tiny fossilized teeth excavated from an Indian open-pit coal mine could be the oldest Asian remains ever found of anthropoids, the primate lineage of today's monkeys, apes and humans, say researchers from Duke University and the Indian Institute of Te ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 4 2008 - 5:05pm

Schizophrenic? Blame Evolution

Metabolic changes responsible for the evolution of our unique cognitive abilities indicate that the brain may have been pushed to the limit of its capabilities, according to research published today in Genome Biology. This adds weight to the theory that sc ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 4 2008 - 6:58pm

Left, Right- Evolution Has Something For Everyone To Attack

Quick; who is against evolution the most? Right wing, religious fundamentalists or left-wing academics? Well, you're right. Both sides have something to fear and both sides attack evolution in order to keep their world view intact. The worst thing for ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Oct 23 2008 - 12:03am

Social Diversity Improves Cooperation And Group Fitness

Researchers have tackled the problem of cooperation (and the related one of the evolution of altruism) for some time now. Initial game theory models suggested that cooperative animals would quickly be supplanted by selfish ones because of a cost to coopera ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Aug 13 2008 - 12:36am

Big Brains, Faster Evolution?

Ever since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have wondered why some lineages have diversified more than others. A classical explanation is that a higher rate of diversification reflects increased ecological opportunities that led to a rapid adaptive radiati ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2008 - 5:34pm

Evolution As The Recycler Of The Cell's Tools

Part 2 on The Plausibility of Life How does evolution shape living things? The fact that evolutionary forces, such as natural selection, can shape living creatures is well-established, but how malleable those creatures are, and what the increments of chang ...

Article - Michael White - Aug 27 2008 - 5:17pm

Hurrah! Yet Another Controversy In Evolutionary Biology!

I have made the point several times on this blog that creationists (among whom I squarely classify so-called intelligent design proponents) simply don’t get it (or refuse to get it) when they claim that scientific controversies are a sign that there is so ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Aug 21 2008 - 1:06pm