Evolution

Homo Naledi: New Limb Added To Human Family Tree

Working in a cave complex deep beneath South Africa's Malmani dolomites, an international team of scientists has brought to light an unprecedented trove of hominin fossils-- more than 1,500 well-preserved bones and teeth-- representing the largest, m ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 11 2015 - 7:44am

Large Eyes Come At A High Cost

Researchers ave shown that well-developed eyes come at a surprising cost to other organ systems.  Researchers have long associated the presence of a well-developed brain with major energy consumption. This means that animals that develop advanced nervous ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2015 - 7:00am

'Missing Link' Stories- Scientists Need To Choose Metaphors Wisely

This spring, the world learned of a newly discovered missing link between microbes and humans called Lokiarchaeota. The actual story is that the microbe Lokiarchaeota, discovered on the deep sea floor by a hydrothermal vent called Loki’s Castle, shares fe ...

Article - The Conversation - Sep 16 2015 - 11:46am

In Snakes, Blueprints For Limbs Also Help Control Formation Of External Genitalia

An evolutionary puzzle in the genome of several different snake species is why their genetic code has DNA that, in most animals, controls the development and growth of limbs. Since snakes have long, legless bodies that such genetic code was likely to have ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 8 2015 - 8:48am

Knee Deep In Spider Leg Evolution

In a new study, Nikola-Michael Prpic et al. have identified the driving force behind the evolution of a leg novelty first found in spiders: knees.   With eight hairy legs and seven joints on each---that's a lot of joints for a spider to coordinate in ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 8 2015 - 7:00am

Capacity To Regenerate Body Parts May Be Primitive State For Four-Legged Vertebrates

A team of paleontologists find in a new fossil study that the extraordinary regenerative capacities of modern salamanders are likely an ancient feature of four-legged vertebrates that was subsequently lost in the course of evolution. ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 28 2015 - 5:13am

Pliobates Cataloniae: New Primate Species At The Root Of The Tree Of Extant Hominoids

Living hominoids are a group of primates that includes the small-bodied apes (the lesser apes, or gibbons and siamangs, which constitute the family Hylobatidae) and the larger-bodied great apes (orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees), which, along with hum ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 2 2015 - 7:37am

Parasite Genome Reveals It's Actually A 'Micro Jellyfish'

Evolution had a few more drinks once again, according to a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which wants to prompts a rethink of what it means to be an animal. Jellyfish, those commonplace sea pests with stinging tentacles, have ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2015 - 11:00am

Human Brains Evolved To Respond To Environmental Influences

Human brains exhibit more plasticity, the tendency to be modeled by the environment, than chimpanzee brains, which may account for part of human evolution, according to a study which may provide insight into why humans are capable of adapting to various e ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2015 - 8:43am

Acorn Worm Genome Shows Why Humans Can Swallow- With Gills In Between

The newly sequenced genomes of two marine worms shed light on the 570 million-year evolution of gills into the human ability to bite, chew, swallow and speak. The draft genome sequences (doi:10.1038/nature16150) of two species of acorn worm, which live in ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 20 2015 - 8:50am