Evolution News

December 21, 2024

Top Headlines

Chart of Life Extended by Nearly 1.5 Billion Years

Dec. 19, 2024 — Fossilized skeletons and shells clearly show how evolution and extinction unfolded over the past half a billion years, but a new analysis extends the chart of life to nearly 2 billion years ago. The chart shows the relative ups and downs in species ...

Unique Motor Control System of Anglerfish's Specialized 'Fishing Rod' Discovered

Dec. 12, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered in anglerfish a specialized motor neuron population for the first dorsal fin used for 'fishing'. When the first dorsal fin evolved from a swimming and buoyancy aid to a ...

Study Sheds Light on the Origin of the Genetic Code

Dec. 12, 2024 — Nearly all living organisms use the same genetic code, a complicated mechanism by which genetic information is translated into proteins, the building blocks of life. A new study suggests conventional wisdom about how the code evolved is likely ...

Oldest Modern Human Genomes Sequenced

Dec. 12, 2024 — Few genomes have been sequenced from early modern humans, who first arrived in Europe when the region was already inhabited by Neanderthals. An international team has now sequenced the oldest modern human genomes to date. The genomes were recovered ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:55am EST

New Research Unlocks Jaw-Dropping Evolution of Lizards and Snakes

Dec. 11, 2024 — A groundbreaking study has shed light on how lizards and snakes -- the most diverse group of land vertebrates with nearly 12,000 species -- have evolved remarkably varied jaw shapes, driving their ...

Biological Diversity Is Not Just the Result of Genes

Dec. 11, 2024 — How can we explain the morphological diversity of living organisms? Although genetics is the answer that typically springs to mind, it is not the only explanation. By combining observations of ...

Chimpanzees Perform the Same Complex Behaviors That Have Brought Humans Success

Dec. 5, 2024 — A new study suggests that the fundamental abilities underlying human language and technological culture may have evolved before humans and apes ...

DNA of 1,000 Year-Old Maize Sheds Light on Origins of Globally Important Food Crop

Dec. 5, 2024 — Researchers have tested ancient DNA from corn found at archaeological sites in Arkansas, shedding new light on the dispersal of one of the world's ...

Deep-Sea Marvels: How Anglerfish Defy Evolutionary Expectations

Dec. 2, 2024 — A groundbreaking study sheds light on the extraordinary evolution of anglerfish, a group of deep-sea dwellers whose bizarre adaptations have captivated scientists and the public alike. The research ...

A Fossil First: Scientists Find 1.5-Million-Year-Old Footprints of Two Different Species of Human Ancestors at Same Spot

Nov. 28, 2024 — More than a million years ago, on a hot savannah teeming with wildlife near the shore of what would someday become Lake Turkana in Kenya, two ...

Fossil Dung Reveals Clues to Dinosaur Success Story

Nov. 27, 2024 — Researchers have been able to identify undigested food remains, plants and prey in the fossilized feces of dinosaurs. These analyses of hundreds of samples provide clues about the role dinosaurs ...

Brains Grew Faster as Humans Evolved

Nov. 27, 2024 — Brain size increased gradually within each ancient human species rather than through sudden leaps between ...

Herodotus' Theory on Armenian Origins Challenged by First Whole-Genome Study

Nov. 25, 2024 — Armenians, a population in Western Asia historically inhabiting the Armenian highlands, were long believed to be descendants of Phrygian settlers ...

Scientists Use Ancient DNA to Shed Light on Adaptation of Early Europeans

Nov. 19, 2024 — Leveraging a unique statistical analysis and applying it to ancient DNA extracted from human skeletal remains, a team of researchers has revealed new insights into how ancient Europeans adapted to ...

Thanksgiving Special: Dinosaur Drumsticks and the Story of the Turkey Trot

Nov. 20, 2024 — Wings may be the obvious choice when studying the connection between dinosaurs and birds, but a pair of paleontologists prefer drumsticks. That part of the leg, they say, is where fibular reduction ...

New Fossil Reveals the Evolution of Flying Reptiles

Nov. 18, 2024 — A newly discovered pterosaur fossil is shedding light on the evolutionary journey of these ancient flying reptiles. This complete specimen, named Skiphosoura bavarica, provides crucial insights into ...

Tiny Worm Makes for Big Evolutionary Discovery

Nov. 18, 2024 — The history of a major animal group, composed of millions of species of insects, arachnids, and nemotodes, has been elusive -- until now. A team has now identified the oldest known ecdysozoan in the ...

Genetic Legacy of Jomon Hunter-Gatherers Linked to Increased BMI in Modern Japanese, Study Finds

Nov. 14, 2024 — New research exploring the roots of modern Japanese populations has linked the genetic signature of Jomon hunter-gatherers to a higher body mass index (BMI) among individuals, underlining that ...

The Secrets of Fossil Teeth Revealed by the Synchrotron: A Long Childhood Is the Prelude to the Evolution of a Large Brain

Nov. 14, 2024 — Could social bonds be the key to human big brains? A study of the fossil teeth of early Homo from Georgia dating back 1.77 million years reveals a prolonged childhood despite a small brain and an ...

Bird Brain from the Age of Dinosaurs Reveals Roots of Avian Intelligence

Nov. 13, 2024 — A 'one of a kind' fossil discovery could transform our understanding of how the unique brains and intelligence of modern birds evolved, one of the most enduring mysteries of vertebrate ...

A New Wrinkle in Turtles: Their Genomes Fold in a Unique Way, Researchers Find

Nov. 11, 2024 — A study described the three-dimensional architecture of turtle genomes, which fold in a configuration unlike any other animal observed so ...

New Insights Into the Denisovans: New Hominin Group That Interbred With Modern Day Humans

Nov. 8, 2024 — Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered 'hominin' group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct ...

New Study Maps Dramatic 100-Million-Year Explosion in Color Signals Used by Animals

Nov. 7, 2024 — A recent study finds that color vision evolved in animals more than 100 million years before the emergence of colorful fruits and flowers. And there has been a dramatic explosion of color signals in ...

The Egg or the Chicken? An Ancient Unicellular Says Egg

Nov. 6, 2024 — Chromosphaera perkinsii is a single-celled species discovered in 2017 in marine sediments around Hawaii. The first signs of its presence on Earth have been dated at over a billion years, well before ...

Evolutionary Paths Vastly Differ for Birds, Bats

Nov. 1, 2024 — New research has found that, unlike birds, the evolution of bats' wings and legs is tightly coupled, which may have prevented them from filling as many ecological niches as ...

Ancient DNA Brings to Life History of the Iconic Aurochs, Whose Tale Is Intertwined With Climate Change and Human Culture

Oct. 30, 2024 — Geneticists have deciphered the prehistory of aurochs -- the animals that were the focus of some of the most iconic early human art -- by analyzing 38 genomes harvested from bones dating across 50 ...

Sinuses Prevented Prehistoric Crocodile Relatives from Deep Diving

Oct. 30, 2024 — Paleobiologists have found that the sinuses of ocean dwelling relatives of modern-day crocodiles prevented them from evolving into deep divers like whales and ...

How Mammals Got Their Stride

Oct. 25, 2024 — Researchers reveal new insights into the complex evolutionary history behind the distinctive upright posture of modern placental and marsupial mammals, showing the transition was surprisingly complex ...

Human Actions Likely Cause Insect Color Change

Oct. 24, 2024 — New Zealand's native stoneflies have changed colour in response to human-driven environmental changes, new research shows. The study provides arguably the world's most clear-cut case of ...

Turtle Genome Provides New Clues on the Evolution of Vertebrates

Oct. 21, 2024 — Scientists have generated the genome assemblies of two hidden-neck turtles, unpublished until now. The results, which revealed a new three-dimensional structure of the genome within the phylogenetic ...

Why Do We Love Carbs? The Origins Predate Agriculture and Maybe Even Our Split from Neanderthals

Oct. 17, 2024 — A new study reveals how the duplication of the salivary amylase gene may not only have helped shape human adaptation to starchy foods, but may have occurred as far back as more than 800,000 years ...

One in Three Plants Call Islands Home: Many at Risk

Oct. 16, 2024 — From Tasmania to Madagascar to New Guinea, islands make up just over five per cent of Earth's land yet are home to 31 per cent of the world's plant species. A new study shows that of all ...

Adaptability of Trees Persists After Millions of Years of Climate Change

Oct. 14, 2024 — Seven of the most common forest trees in Europe have been shown to be able to shelter their genetic diversity from major shifts in environmental conditions. This is despite their ranges having shrunk ...

How Playing Songs to Darwin's Finches Helped Biologists Confirm Link Between Environment and the Emergence of New Species

Oct. 10, 2024 — They say that hindsight is 20/20, and though the theory of ecological speciation -- which holds that new species emerge in response to ecological changes -- seems to hold in retrospect, it has been ...