News Feature Channel: Evolution and Darwin

WHOI's Mark Hahn named AAAS Fellow

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 08:00:15 EST

AAAS welcomes 471 scientists and engineers in the class of 2024

Scientists Uncover Key Mechanism in Evolution: Whole-Genome Duplication Drives Long-Term Adaptation

Georgia Institute of Technology — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 21:20:20 EST

Georgia Tech scientists uncovered how whole-genome duplication emerges and remains stable over thousands of generations of evolution in the lab.

How Big Brains and Flexible Skulls Led to the Evolution of Modern Birds

University of Chicago Medical Center — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 18:15:37 EST

3D modeling shows how larger brains triggered changes in jaw muscles and joint mechanics that powered a flexible feeding system for modern birds.

Bronx Zoo's Dinosaur Safari Is Back! New Animatronics and Hands-On Fun for Dino-Lovers of All Ages

Wildlife Conservation Society — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 07:05:07 EST

Something BIG is coming this spring to New York, as Dinosaur Safari returns with a roar to the Bronx Zoo! Guests will get up close with some of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth, including more than 60 life-size animatronic dinosaurs and pterosaurs, as Dinosaur Safari opens to the public on Saturday, April 12.

Secret Lives of Ancient Antarctic Penguins and Seals Uncovered

University of Adelaide — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 05:00:00 EST

Analysis of sedimentary ancient DNA has illuminated 6000 years of the lives of Adelie penguin colonies on Antarctica's Ross Sea coast, showing how animals in the region responded to climate and environmental change events over millennia.

MSU Forges Strategic Partnership to Solve the Mystery of How Planets Are Formed

Michigan State University — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 09:30:56 EST

MSU forges strategic partnership to solve the mystery of how planets are formed

A Single Protein May Have Helped Shape the Emergence of Spoken Language

Rockefeller University — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 18:20:40 EST

In the Weeds: Amaranth Genomes Reveal Secrets of Success

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 09:50:17 EST

Weeds like Palmer amaranth make farming harder and less profitable, and available herbicides are becoming less effective. For scientists to find solutions, they first need to know their enemy. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborating institutions reveals complete chromosome-level genomes for Palmer and two other Amaranthus species, smooth and redroot pigweed. The advancement represents a major leap in scientists' understanding of the weeds' biology, including their ability to detoxify common herbicides.

New Study Reveals Neanderthals Experienced Population Crash 110,000 Years Ago

Binghamton University, State University of New York — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 09:05:20 EST

A new study by an international team of scholars, including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, suggests that Neanderthals experienced a dramatic loss of genetic variation during the course of their evolution, foreshadowing their eventual extinction.

How Dinosaur Extinctions Created an Environment That Contributed to Our Fruit-Eating Primate Ancestors

Northern Arizona University — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 04:00:00 EST

New research from Northern Arizona University shows that the evolution of fruit--and the evolution of fruit-eating primates, the early ancestors of humans--was influenced by the "ecosystem engineering" of large sauropods.

On Darwin Day: The Largest Collection of Caricatures of Charles Darwin and Evolution in History Unveiled

National University of Singapore (NUS) — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 11:00:00 EST

On Darwin Day, 12 February 2025, the Darwin Online project at the National University of Singapore (NUS) launches the largest collection of caricatures of Charles Darwin and evolution in history.

Boosting Evolution: How Humans Unintentionally Altered the Skulls of Pigs

Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 04:25:18 EST

Short snouts and a flat profile - within a span of 100 years, humans have significantly changed the shape of the skulls of German domestic pigs. According to a team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), this is likely down to new breeding practices introduced at the beginning of the 20th century.

John Reinitz, Systems Biologist, 1958-2025

University of Chicago Medical Center — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 20:35:45 EST

Reinitz helped pioneer a data-driven, systems approach to developmental biology that is now widely used in the field today.

Male Hairy 'Hoff Crab' Has Oversized Claws to Compete for Females

University of Portsmouth — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 03:10:16 EST

New research has revealed that a hairy crustacean - dubbed "The Hoff Crab" when it was discovered in 2010 - is the first species in its family to show different claw characteristics between sexes.

Large-Scale Evolution Simulations on PSC's Neocortex Tackle Questions about Hypermutator Evolution

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 19:10:24 EST

In real life, mutants can arise when their DNA changes to give them an advantage over the rest of the population. A team from the University of Michigan has used simulations on the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's Neocortex system to find out why beneficial mutants rarely come to dominate real organisms.

Sharks and Rays Benefit From Global Warming - but Not From CO2 in the Oceans

University of Vienna — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 05:50:25 EST

Sharks and rays have populated the world's oceans for around 450 million years, but more than a third of the species living today are severely threatened by overfishing and the loss of their habitat. An international research team led by palaeobiologist Manuel A. Staggl from the University of Vienna has now investigated whether and how global warming influences the diversity of sharks based on climate fluctuations between 200 and 66 million years ago. According to the study, higher temperatures and more shallow water areas have a positive effect, while higher CO2 levels have a clearly negative effect. The study was recently published in the scientific journal "Biology".

When Human Ancestors Began Eating Meat Remains a Mystery

Stony Brook University — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 17:30:05 EST

An international team of researchers including Dominic Stratford, PhD, of Stony Brook University and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, have discovered that an ancient human ancestor found in deposits at the Sterkfontein Caves, Australopithecus, which lived more than three million years ago in South Africa, primarily ate plant-based foods. The finding, published in the journal Science, stems from an analysis of tooth enamel from seven Australopithecus fossils and is significant because the emergence of meat eating is thought to be a key driver of a large increase in brain size seen in later hominins.

Doubling Down on Detox

University of Utah — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 19:10:02 EST

As creosote spread across the American Southwest 20,000 years ago, natural selection favored changes that led to duplicating genes that produce an abundance of detox enzymes. Gene duplication is likely the first step that enables animals to rapidly adapt to new environmental pressure, a notion challenging conventional wisdom.

Why Are Lemurs Nearly Extinct, and Yet So Diverse?

Universite de Montreal — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 20:30:47 EST

In the largest research effort to date, anthropologists at Universite de Montreal succeed in sequencing the genomes of 162 lemurs from 50 species across the island of Madagascar - and solve an evolutionary puzzle.

The Extreme Teeth of Sabre-Toothed Predators Were 'Optimal' for Biting Into Prey, New Study Reveals

University of Bristol — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 11:00:00 EST

Sabre-toothed predators - best know from the infamous Smilodon - evolved multiple times across different mammal groups. A new study, published today in Current Biology reveals why: these teeth were 'functionally optimal' and highly effective at puncturing prey.