Feature Channels: Evolution and Darwin

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Newswise: Snakes: An Evolutionary Winner
19-Feb-2024 2:05 PM EST
Snakes: An Evolutionary Winner
Stony Brook University

A study of more than 60,000 specimens of snakes and lizards worldwide reveals that snakes stand out alone in the evolution of reptiles. The team of scientists discovered that snakes evolved incredibly fast, as their ancestors shed limbs and adapted on multiple levels to live and spread out into thousands of species of snakes over 66 million years, up to today.

Newswise: Did neanderthals use glue? Researchers find evidence that sticks
Released: 21-Feb-2024 3:05 PM EST
Did neanderthals use glue? Researchers find evidence that sticks
New York University

Neanderthals created stone tools held together by a multi-component adhesive, a team of scientists has discovered.

Newswise: Scientists try out stone age tools to understand how they were used
Released: 19-Feb-2024 9:05 PM EST
Scientists try out stone age tools to understand how they were used
Tokyo Metropolitan University

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University crafted replica stone age tools and used them for a range of tasks to see how different activities create traces on the edge.

Newswise: Mystery solved: the oldest fossil reptile from the alps is an historical forgery
Released: 16-Feb-2024 10:05 PM EST
Mystery solved: the oldest fossil reptile from the alps is an historical forgery
University College Cork

A 280-million-year-old fossil that has baffled researchers for decades has been shown to be, in part, a forgery following new examination of the remnants.

Newswise: Early-stage subduction invasion
Released: 15-Feb-2024 7:05 PM EST
Early-stage subduction invasion
Geological Society of America (GSA)

Our planet’s lithosphere is broken into several tectonic plates. Their configuration is ever-shifting, as supercontinents are assembled and broken up, and oceans form, grow, and then start to close in what is known as the Wilson cycle.

Newswise: Global study: Wild megafauna shape ecosystem properties
Released: 11-Feb-2024 9:05 PM EST
Global study: Wild megafauna shape ecosystem properties
Aarhus University

For millions of years, a variety of large herbivores, or megafauna, influenced terrestrial ecosystems.

Newswise: The Complete Library of Charles Darwin revealed for the first time
8-Feb-2024 8:00 AM EST
The Complete Library of Charles Darwin revealed for the first time
National University of Singapore (NUS)

Charles Darwin – arguably the most influential man of science in history, accumulated a vast personal library throughout his working life. Until now, 85 per cent of its contents were unknown or unpublished.

Newswise: Innovation in stone tool technology involved multiple stages at the time of modern human dispersals
Released: 7-Feb-2024 11:05 AM EST
Innovation in stone tool technology involved multiple stages at the time of modern human dispersals
Nagoya University

A study led by researchers at the Nagoya University Museum in Japan may change how we understand the cultural evolution of Homo sapiens at the time of their dispersal across Eurasia about 50,000 to 40,000 years ago.

Newswise: New species of Jurassic pterosaur discovered on the Isle of Skye
2-Feb-2024 7:05 AM EST
New species of Jurassic pterosaur discovered on the Isle of Skye
University of Bristol

A new species of pterosaur from specimens found on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, has been announced by scientists from the Natural History Museum, University of Bristol, University of Leicester, and University of Liverpool.

Newswise: original-1706268249.webp?t=eyJ3aWR0aCI6MTY5NiwiZmlsZV9leHRlbnNpb24iOiJ3ZWJwIiwib2JqX2lkIjoyMTQ1NTk0MX0%3D--02afebe68ce2cb8a093bcdcbcce844df2d44bbde
29-Jan-2024 2:10 PM EST
Homo sapiens already reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago
Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft)

An international research team reports the discovery of Homo sapiens fossils from the cave site Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany. Directly dated to approximately 45,000 years ago, these fossils are associated with elongated stone points partly shaped on both sides (known as partial bifacial blade points), which are characteristic of the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ).

Released: 29-Jan-2024 12:05 PM EST
How did humans learn to walk? New evolutionary study offers an earful
New York University

The inner ear of a 6-million-year-old fossil ape reveals clues about the evolution of human movement.

Released: 25-Jan-2024 3:05 PM EST
Palaeontology: Small dinosaurs flapped their feathers to scare prey
Scientific Reports

Small omnivorous and insectivorous dinosaurs may have flapped small, feathered primitive wings to scare prey out of hiding places, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.

Newswise: Researchers chronicle lifetime travels of a single woolly mammoth which wandered the north more than 14,000 years ago
14-Jan-2024 9:05 PM EST
Researchers chronicle lifetime travels of a single woolly mammoth which wandered the north more than 14,000 years ago
McMaster University

An international team of researchers from McMaster University, University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Ottawa has tracked and documented the movements and genetic connections of a female woolly mammoth that roamed the earth more than 14,000 years ago.

Newswise: Study on lamprey embryos sheds light on the evolutionary origin of vertebrate head
Released: 10-Jan-2024 1:05 PM EST
Study on lamprey embryos sheds light on the evolutionary origin of vertebrate head
University of Fukui

Scientists study developing lamprey embryos to clarify the origin of vertebrate head, paving the way to a better understanding of ancestral vertebrates.

Newswise: The evolution of photosynthesis better documented thanks to the discovery of the oldest thylakoids in fossil cyanobacteria
Released: 5-Jan-2024 1:05 PM EST
The evolution of photosynthesis better documented thanks to the discovery of the oldest thylakoids in fossil cyanobacteria
University of Liege

Researchers at the University of Liège (ULiège) have identified microstructures in fossil cells that are 1.75 billion years old. These structures, called thylakoid membranes, are the oldest ever discovered.

Newswise: Biologists uncover the secrets of evolutionary change
Released: 4-Jan-2024 4:05 PM EST
Biologists uncover the secrets of evolutionary change
University of Sheffield

Significant evolutionary changes happen gradually as opposed to in dramatic ‘monster’ steps, biologists have discovered, answering the long-debated question as to how game-changing innovations like flight, vision, and the bearing of live offspring came to be.

Newswise: The snail or the egg?
Released: 4-Jan-2024 4:05 PM EST
The snail or the egg?
Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria)

The egg did come first. Egg-laying arose deep in evolutionary time, long before animals even made their way onto land.

Released: 4-Jan-2024 5:05 AM EST
Evolution is not as random as previously thought, finds a new study
University of Nottingham

A groundbreaking study has found that evolution is not as unpredictable as previously thought, which could allow scientists to explore which genes could be useful to tackle real-world issues such as antibiotic resistance, disease and climate change.

Released: 3-Jan-2024 5:05 PM EST
Early primates likely lived in pairs
University of Zurich

Primates – and this includes humans – are thought of as highly social animals.

Newswise: Evolution might stop humans from solving climate change, says new study
Released: 3-Jan-2024 7:05 AM EST
Evolution might stop humans from solving climate change, says new study
University of Maine

Central features of human evolution may stop our species from resolving global environmental problems like climate change, says a new study led by the University of Maine.

Newswise: World’s smallest “fanged” frogs found in Indonesia
Released: 20-Dec-2023 3:05 PM EST
World’s smallest “fanged” frogs found in Indonesia
Field Museum

In general, frogs’ teeth aren’t anything to write home about—they look like pointy little pinpricks lining the upper jaw.

Released: 15-Dec-2023 9:30 PM EST
A mathematical framework for evo-devo dynamics
University of St. Andrews

Natural selection acts on phenotypes constructed over development, which raises the question of how development affects evolution.

Newswise: Why the long face? Scientists solve a major puzzle in mammal skull shape evolution
Released: 12-Dec-2023 2:05 PM EST
Why the long face? Scientists solve a major puzzle in mammal skull shape evolution
Flinders University

Horses have developed long faces simply ‘because they can,’ a team of evolutionary biologists say.

Released: 11-Dec-2023 10:05 AM EST
التفسير العلمي لردود الفعل الغريبة للجسم
Mayo Clinic

تقوم أجسامنا كل يوم ببعض الأمور الغريبة وغير المعتادة. فيما يلي بعض الأسئلة والأجوبة التي تقدم التفسير العلمي وراء حدوث ذلك.

   
Released: 8-Dec-2023 4:05 PM EST
La explicación científica detrás de algunas reacciones extrañas del cuerpo
Mayo Clinic

A diario, el cuerpo hace algunas cosas bastante extrañas e inusuales. A continuación, se incluyen algunas preguntas y respuestas que ofrecen la explicación científica de por qué suceden.

   
Released: 8-Dec-2023 3:05 PM EST
A explicação científica para reações peculiares do organismo
Mayo Clinic

Todos os dias, nossos organismos reagem de formas peculiares e incomuns. Aqui estão algumas perguntas e respostas que explicam a base científica desses eventos.

Released: 7-Dec-2023 5:05 PM EST
Molecular fossils shed light on ancient life
University of California, Davis

Paleontologists are getting a glimpse at life over a billion years in the past based on chemical traces in ancient rocks and the genetics of living animals.

Released: 7-Dec-2023 11:05 AM EST
Wasps that recognize faces cooperate more, may be smarter
Cornell University

A new study of paper wasps suggests social interactions may make animals smarter. The research offers behavioral evidence of an evolutionary link between the ability to recognize individuals and social cooperation.

Newswise: A Mathematical Model Connects the Evolution of Chickens, Fish and Frogs
Released: 6-Dec-2023 2:00 PM EST
A Mathematical Model Connects the Evolution of Chickens, Fish and Frogs
University of California San Diego

One of the most enduring questions of life is: How does it happen? One line of scientific inquiry lies in understanding gastrulation — the stage at which embryo cells develop from a single layer to a multidimensional structure. New research suggests that the same physical principles behind multicellular self-organization may have evolved across vertebrate species.

Newswise: Researchers map crocodile family tree to shed light on their evolution
Released: 4-Dec-2023 6:05 PM EST
Researchers map crocodile family tree to shed light on their evolution
University of York

The research team, led by scientists at the University of York, mapped the family tree of the ferocious ambush-predators and their extinct relatives known as Pseudosuchia.

Newswise: A new bacterial species from a hydrothermal vent throws light on their evolution
Released: 29-Nov-2023 8:00 PM EST
A new bacterial species from a hydrothermal vent throws light on their evolution
Hokkaido University

A new bacterial species discovered at the deep-sea hydrothermal vent site ‘Crab Spa’ provides a deeper understanding of bacterial evolution.

Newswise: How shifting climates may have shaped early elephants’ trunks
Released: 29-Nov-2023 6:05 PM EST
How shifting climates may have shaped early elephants’ trunks
eLife

Researchers have provided new insights into how ancestral elephants developed their dextrous trunks.

Released: 28-Nov-2023 6:05 PM EST
Early Humans in the Paleolithic Age: More Than Just Game on the Menu
Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum

In a study published in the journal “Scientific Reports,” researchers from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of Tübingen show that early humans of the Middle Paleolithic had a more varied diet than previously assumed.

Newswise: Rough draft of Darwin’s Origin of species goes online
22-Nov-2023 8:05 PM EST
Rough draft of Darwin’s Origin of species goes online
National University of Singapore (NUS)

On the 164th anniversary of Charles Darwin's Origin of species, the Darwin Online project at the National University of Singapore (NUS) will launch all the surviving draft pages of one of the most influential scientific books in history.

Released: 22-Nov-2023 4:05 PM EST
How do temperature extremes influence the distribution of species?
McGill University

McGill biology researchers found that there are patterns regarding the importance of temperature in determining where species live, shedding light on their sensitivity to climate change

Released: 22-Nov-2023 12:05 PM EST
This sea worm’s butt swims away, and now scientists know how
SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Armed with its own eyes, antennae, and swimming bristles, the posterior body part detaches for spawning. UTokyo scientists revealed its developmental mechanism for the first time.

Newswise: Skunks’ warning stripes less prominent where predators are sparse, study finds
20-Nov-2023 5:05 AM EST
Skunks’ warning stripes less prominent where predators are sparse, study finds
University of Bristol

Striped skunks are less likely to evolve with their famous and white markings where the threat of predation from mammals is low, scientists from the University of Bristol, Montana and Long Beach, California have discovered.

Newswise: Study Reveals New Clues About How Whales and Dolphins Came to Use Echolocation
Released: 21-Nov-2023 8:05 AM EST
Study Reveals New Clues About How Whales and Dolphins Came to Use Echolocation
New York Institute of Technology, New York Tech

Research provides new insight into how toothed whales and dolphins evolved to navigate the underwater world using sound waves.

Released: 17-Nov-2023 1:05 PM EST
Fishing chimpanzees found to enjoy termites as a seasonal treat
Frontiers

Seasonal rain and termite dispersal flights make protein-rich termites vulnerable to fishing chimpanzees

Released: 17-Nov-2023 12:05 PM EST
Scientists have solved the damselfly color mystery
Lund University

For over 20 years, a research team at Lund University in Sweden has studied the common bluetail damselfly. Females occur in three different colour forms – one with a male-like appearance, something that protects them from mating harassment. In a new study, an international research team found that this genetic colour variation that is shared between several species arose through changes in a specific genomic region at least five million years ago.

Newswise: Love thy neighbor: Cooperation extends beyond one’s own group in wild bonobos
Released: 17-Nov-2023 3:05 AM EST
Love thy neighbor: Cooperation extends beyond one’s own group in wild bonobos
Harvard University

A new study published this week in Science challenges the notion that only humans are capable of forming strong and strategic cooperative relationships and sharing resources across non-family groups.

Released: 15-Nov-2023 11:20 AM EST
From Farm to Newsroom: The Latest Research and Features on Agriculture
Newswise

The world’s total population is expected to reach 9.9 billion by 2050. This rapid increase in population is boosting the demand for agriculture to cater for the increased demand. Below are some of the latest research and features on agriculture and farming in the Agriculture channel on Newswise.

Released: 13-Nov-2023 7:05 PM EST
Recreation of ancient seawater reveals which nutrients shaped the evolution of early life
University of Oxford

Scientists know very little about conditions in the ocean when life first evolved, but new research published in Nature Geoscience has revealed how geological processes controlled which nutrients were available to fuel their development.

Newswise: Bacteria-Virus Arms Race Provides Rare Window into Rapid and Complex Evolution
6-Nov-2023 8:00 AM EST
Bacteria-Virus Arms Race Provides Rare Window into Rapid and Complex Evolution
University of California San Diego

Rather than a slow, gradual process as Darwin envisioned, biologists can now see how evolutionary changes unfold on accelerated timescales. Using an arms race between bacteria and viruses, researchers are documenting complex evolutionary processes in simple laboratory flasks in only three weeks.

   
Released: 7-Nov-2023 12:05 PM EST
450-million-year-old organism finds new life in Softbotics
Carnegie Mellon University, College of Engineering

Researchers used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of an extinct marine organism to understand how locomotion has changed in animals over time.

Newswise: 450-million-year-old organism finds new life in Softbotics
Released: 6-Nov-2023 5:05 PM EST
450-million-year-old organism finds new life in Softbotics
Carnegie Mellon University, College of Engineering

Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with paleontologists from Spain and Poland, used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of pleurocystitid, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago and is believed to be one of the first echinoderms capable of movement using a muscular stem.

Newswise: Chimpanzees use hilltops to conduct reconnaissance on rival groups - study
Released: 2-Nov-2023 9:05 PM EDT
Chimpanzees use hilltops to conduct reconnaissance on rival groups - study
University of Cambridge

Chimpanzees use high ground to conduct reconnaissance on rival groups, often before making forays into enemy territory at times when there is reduced risk of confrontation, a new study suggests.

Newswise: How organs of male and female mammals differ
Released: 2-Nov-2023 9:05 PM EDT
How organs of male and female mammals differ
Universität Heidelberg

The development of sex-specific characteristics is frequently seen in mammals. These characteristics stem from the activation of corresponding genetic programmes that until now have been largely undescribed by the scientific community.

Newswise: Fruit, nectar, bugs and blood: How bat teeth and jaws evolved for a diverse dinnertime
Released: 26-Oct-2023 1:05 PM EDT
Fruit, nectar, bugs and blood: How bat teeth and jaws evolved for a diverse dinnertime
University of Washington

Noctilionoid bat species evolved wildly different faces as they adapted to exploit diverse food sources -- including insects, fruit, nectar, blood and fish. New research shows that those adaptations include dramatic, but also consistent, modifications to tooth number, size, shape and position.



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