Evolutionary Biology News
May 12, 2024
Top Headlines
May 10, 2024 Introns are perhaps one of our genome's biggest mysteries. They are DNA sequences that interrupt the sensible protein-coding information in your genes, and need to be 'spliced ...
May 7, 2024 Chimpanzees continue to learn and hone their skills well into adulthood, a capacity that might be essential for the evolution of complex and varied tool use, according to a new ...
May 8, 2024 Freshwater bacteria with small genomes frequently undergo prolonged periods of adaptive stagnation. Based on genomic analyses of samples from European lakes, researchers uncovered specific evolutionary strategies that shape these bacteria's ...
May 3, 2024 Land plants cover the surface of our planet and often tower over us. They form complex bodies with multiple organs that consist of a broad range of cell types. Developing this morphological complexity is underpinned by intricate networks of genes, ...
Latest Headlines
updated 10:56pm EDT
May 9, 2024 In a study of a species of African butterfly, researchers have discovered a previously undescribed molecular mechanism of how the sex of an embryo is initially ...
Apr. 26, 2024 Elucidating the relationship between the sequences of non-coding regulatory elements and their target genes is key to understanding gene regulation ...
May 7, 2024 Engineers have developed two new graph-based computational tools for tracking genomic variation within ...
Apr. 30, 2024 Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in understanding how genetic drivers influence the evolution of a specific photosynthesis mechanism in ...
Apr. 30, 2024 A study of body size in leaf-nosed bats of the Solomon Islands has revealed surprising genetic diversity among nearly indistinguishable species on ...
Apr. 26, 2024 Research study reports intriguing findings made through innovative artificial intelligence analysis about yeasts -- small fungi that are key contributors to biotechnology, food production, and human ...
Apr. 25, 2024 The results suggest that internal -- not external -- factors are the primary drivers of variation in the types of carbon yeasts can eat, and the ...
Apr. 23, 2024 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. The study focuses on an ancient ...
Apr. 25, 2024 Cichlid fishes exhibit differing degrees of curiosity. The cause for this lies in their genes, as reported by researchers. This trait influences the cichlids' ability to adapt to new ...
Apr. 24, 2024 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. ...
Earlier Headlines
Apr. 24, 2024 A new study sheds light on how parasites, often overlooked, can dramatically affect the balance between predator and prey populations. Researchers developed a groundbreaking mathematical framework ...
Apr. 24, 2024 Researchers explain the genomic and developmental basis of the patagium, the thin skin membrane that allows some mammalian species to soar through the ...
Apr. 18, 2024 Animal and plant populations have been extensively studied, which has helped to understand ecosystem processes and evolutionary adaptations. However, this has not been the case with microbial ...
Apr. 18, 2024 The origin of life continues to remain a matter of debate. The ribonucleic acid (RNA) world hypothesis proposes that 'ribozymes' which store genetic information and possess catalytic ...
Apr. 17, 2024 Mountain chickadees have among the best spatial memory in the animal kingdom. New research identifies the genes at play and offers insight into how a shifting climate may impact the evolution of this ...
Apr. 17, 2024 Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a hybrid species, formed by two other species breeding together almost 200,000 years ago. Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a ...
Apr. 16, 2024 Researchers who created 'family trees' for nearly 10,000 fish found that first-generation, wild-born descendants of hatchery-origin Chinook salmon in an Oregon river show improved ...
Apr. 16, 2024 According to a research team led by palaeontologists, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several ...
Apr. 16, 2024 Plants with multiple sets of chromosomes, known as polyploids, are salt-tolerant or drought-resistant and often achieve higher yields. However, newly formed polyploid plants are often sterile or have ...
Apr. 15, 2024 4.5 million gamers around the world have advanced medical science by helping to reconstruct microbial evolutionary histories using a minigame included inside the critically and commercially ...
Apr. 15, 2024 A series of whole genome and gene duplication events that go back hundreds of millions of years have laid the foundations for tissue-specific gene expression, according to a new study. The ...
Apr. 12, 2024 A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or 'seaweed,' to evolve multicellularity. Three lineages of macroalgae developed ...
Apr. 11, 2024 Researchers show that ozone levels, such as those found in many places on hot summer days today, destroy the sex pheromones of fruit fly species. As a result, some natural mating boundaries ...
Apr. 11, 2024 Traces of DNA in the stomachs of predatory snails give a team og geobiologists new insights into the ecology of ...
Apr. 10, 2024 Early jawless fish were likely to have used bony projections surrounding their mouths to modify the mouth's shape while they collected food. Experts have used CT scanning techniques to build up ...
Apr. 9, 2024 The first birdfeeders were made in the 19th century, and their design rapidly evolved during the 20th century. Researchers at the consider the evolution of the birdfeeder to be an example of ...
Apr. 8, 2024 Genetic analysis finds evidence suggesting that acoustic fat bodies in the heads of toothed whales were once the muscles and bone marrow of the ...
Apr. 8, 2024 Scientists are amazed at the discovery of a bristle worm with such sharp-seeing eyes that they can measure up to those of mammals and octopuses. The researchers suspect that these marine worms may ...
Apr. 5, 2024 A new reconstruction of the 375-million-year-old fossil fish Tiktaalik -- a close relative of limbed vertebrates -- used micro-CT to reveal bones still embedded in matrix. The reconstruction shows ...
Apr. 5, 2024 A new study calls into question Bergmann's rule, an 1800s-era scientific principle stating that animals in high-latitude, cooler climates tend to be larger than close relatives living in warmer ...
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Thursday, April 18, 2024
- Marine Microbial Populations: Potential Sensors of the Global Change in the Ocean
- RNA's Hidden Potential: New Study Unveils Its Role in Early Life and Future Bioengineering
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
- Mountain Chickadees Have Remarkable Memories. A New Study Explains Why
- New Butterfly Species Created 200,000 Years Ago by Two Species Interbreeding
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
- Reproductive Success Improves After a Single Generation in the Wild for Descendants of Some Hatchery-Origin Chinook Salmon
- Seed Ferns: Plants Experimented With Complex Leaf Vein Networks 201 Million Years Ago
- Twisted Pollen Tubes Induce Infertility
Monday, April 15, 2024
- Millions of Gamers Advance Biomedical Research
- Evolution's Recipe Book: How 'copy Paste' Errors Cooked Up the Animal Kingdom
Friday, April 12, 2024
Thursday, April 11, 2024
- Oxidant Pollutant Ozone Removes Mating Barriers Between Fly Species
- Geobiology: New Placozoan Habitat Discovered
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Monday, April 8, 2024
- Toothed Whale Echolocation Organs Evolved from Jaw Muscles
- Mediterranean Marine Worm Has Developed Enormous Eyes
Friday, April 5, 2024
- In the Evolution of Walking, the Hip Bone Connected to the Rib Bones
- Dinosaur Study Challenges Bergmann's Rule
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
- New Sunflower Family Tree Reveals Multiple Origins of Flower Symmetry
- Evolution in Action? New Study Finds Possibility of Nitrogen-Fixing Organelles
- First View of Centromere Variation and Evolution
- We've Had Bird Evolution All Wrong
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Monday, April 1, 2024
Thursday, March 28, 2024
- When Inequality Is More Than 'skin-Deep': Social Status Leaves Traces in the Epigenome of Spotted Hyenas in Tanzania
- Genomic Research May Help Explain Cancer Resistance in Tasmanian Devils
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
- Scientists Extract Genetic Secrets from 4,000-Year-Old Teeth to Illuminate the Impact of Changing Human Diets Over the Centuries
- Secrets of the Naked Mole-Rat: New Study Reveals How Their Unique Metabolism Protects Them from Heart Attacks
Monday, March 25, 2024
- Humans Pass More Viruses to Other Animals Than We Catch from Them
- Researchers Discover Evolutionary 'tipping Point' In Fungi
Friday, March 22, 2024
Thursday, March 21, 2024
- Rays Were More Diverse 150 Million Years Ago Than Previously Thought
- How Butterflies Choose Mates: Gene Controls Preferences
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
- Decoding the Easter Bunny -- An Eastern Finnish Brown Hare to Represent the Standard for the Species' Genome
- Across Oceans and Millennia: Decoding the Origin and History of the Bottle Gourd
Monday, March 18, 2024
- Tanks of the Triassic: New Crocodile Ancestor Identified
- Genes Identified That Allow Bacteria to Thrive Despite Toxic Heavy Metal in Soil
- Industrial Societies Losing Healthy Gut Microbes
- Genetic Basis for the Evolution of Hair Discovered in the Clawed Frog
- Scientists Discover How Diadem Butterfly Mimics African Queen
Friday, March 15, 2024
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
- Rice Paddy Snake Diversification Was Driven by Geological and Environmental Factors in Thailand, Molecular Data Suggests
- Gene Flow in Giraffes and What It Means for Their Conservation
Monday, March 11, 2024
Friday, March 8, 2024
- New Study Discovers How Altered Protein Folding Drives Multicellular Evolution
- Evolutionary Nature of Animal Friendships
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
- Early Life Adversity Leaves Long-Term Signatures in Baboon DNA
- The World's Most Prolific CO2-Fixing Enzyme Is Slowly Getting Better
- Revealing the Evolutionary Origin of Genomic Imprinting
- Synthetic Gene Helps Explain the Mysteries of Transcription Across Species
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Monday, March 4, 2024
- Modeling the Origins of Life: New Evidence for an 'RNA World'
- An Evolutionary Mystery 125 Million Years in the Making
- Unraveling the Mystery of Chiton Visual Systems
Friday, March 1, 2024
- Light Into the Darkness of Photosynthesis
- Bottlenecks and Beehives: How an Invasive Bee Colony Defied Genetic Expectations
- Convergent Evolution of Algal CO2-Fixing Organelles
Thursday, February 29, 2024
- Shining a Light on the Effects of Habituation and Neural Adaptation on the Evolution of Animal Signals
- Genetic Research Revealed Several New Fern Species in Tropical America
- The Golgi Organelle's Ribbon Structure Is Not Exclusive to Vertebrates, Contrary to Previous Consensus
- The Veil Varies More Than the Threat: Predator Selection on Variability in Camouflage and Warning Signals
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Monday, February 26, 2024
Thursday, February 22, 2024
- Killer Instinct Drove Evolution of Mammals' Predatory Ancestors
- Snakes Do It Faster, Better: How a Group of Scaly, Legless Lizards Hit the Evolutionary Jackpot
- Copies of Antibiotic Resistance Genes Greatly Elevated in Humans and Livestock
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
- Weedy Rice Gets Competitive Boost from Its Wild Neighbors
- Butterfly and Moth Genomes Mostly Unchanged Despite 250 Million Years of Evolution
- An Awkward Family Reunion: Sea Monsters Are Our Cousins
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
- The Cultural Evolution of Collective Property Rights
- Scientists May Have Cracked the 'aging Process' In Species
- Bat 'nightclubs' May Be the Key to Solving the Next Pandemic
Friday, February 16, 2024
Thursday, February 15, 2024
- Big New Idea Introduced With the Help of Tiny Plankton
- Ancient Retroviruses Played a Key Role in the Evolution of Vertebrate Brains
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
- A Lighthouse in the Gobi Desert
- Key Genes Linked to DNA Damage and Human Disease Uncovered
- Tawny Owl's Pale Grey Color Linked to Vital Functions Ensuring Survival in Extreme Conditions
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Monday, February 12, 2024
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Monday, February 5, 2024
- New Species of Jurassic Pterosaur Discovered on the Isle of Skye
- Smells Like Evolution: Fruit Flies Reveal Surprises in Chemical Sensing
- How Food Availability Could Catalyze Cultural Transmission in Wild Orangutans
Friday, February 2, 2024
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
- Scientists Pinpoint Growth of Brain's Cerebellum as Key to Evolution of Bird Flight
- 'Genomic Time Machine' Reveals Secrets of Our DNA
Monday, January 29, 2024
- How Did Humans Learn to Walk? New Evolutionary Study Offers an Earful
- Researchers Map Genome for Cats, Dolphins, Birds, and Dozens of Other Animals