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Evolution news
Yeast study offers possible answer to why some species are generalists and others specialists
In a landmark study based on one of the most comprehensive genomic datasets ever assembled, a team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Vanderbilt University offer a possible answer to one of the ...
Evolution
5 hours ago
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Cichlid fishes' curiosity promotes biodiversity: How exploratory behavior aids in ecological adaptation
Cichlid fishes exhibit differing degrees of curiosity. The cause for this lies in their genes, as reported by researchers from the University of Basel in the journal Science. This trait influences the cichlids' ability to ...
Evolution
5 hours ago
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The rise of microbial cheaters in iron-limited environments: Study reveals their evolutionary history
Competition and cooperation are fundamental forces that govern the evolutionary and ecological dynamics among species. The balance between these forces varies across ecological contexts, with some environments favoring cooperative ...
Evolution
8 hours ago
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Researcher finds that wood frogs evolved rapidly in response to road salts
When we think of evolution, we think of a process that happens over hundreds or thousands of years. In research published in Ecology and Evolution a team led by Rick Relyea, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and David ...
Evolution
Apr 24, 2024
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Evolutionary biologists show that the color variants of female cuckoos are based on ancient mutations
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. There are two variants of ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 24, 2024
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How evolution has optimized the magnetic sensor in birds
Migratory birds are able to navigate and orientate with astonishing accuracy using various mechanisms, including a magnetic compass. A team led by biologists Dr. Corinna Langebrake and Prof. Dr. Miriam Liedvogel from the ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 24, 2024
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A key gene helps explain how the ability to glide has emerged over-and-over during marsupial evolution
People say "When pigs fly" to describe the impossible. But even if most mammals are landlubbers, the ability to glide or fly has evolved again and again during mammalian evolution, in species ranging from bats to flying squirrels. ...
Evolution
Apr 24, 2024
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Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago, pushing back previous oldest dated example
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 from scientists with the Smithsonian's National Museum ...
Evolution
Apr 23, 2024
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Flat faces and difficulty breathing: How pet trends have harmed animal health—and what we can we do about it
Dogs come in all shapes and sizes. We've molded some of them to have large protruding eyes, sloping backs and shortened legs through selective breeding.
Evolution
Apr 23, 2024
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Advances in understanding the evolution of stomach loss in agastric fishes
Living beings can evolve to lose biological structures due to potential survival benefits from such losses. For example, certain groups of ray-finned fishes show such regressive evolution—medakas, minnows, puffera, and ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 23, 2024
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Researchers report on mechanisms of gene regulatory divergence between species
Closely related animal species can look physically different, but you might be surprised to learn that those differences can result not only from DNA sequence changes that alter proteins' structure or function, but also because ...
Evolution
Apr 23, 2024
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Same species, different sizes: Rare evolution in action spotted in island bats
A University of Melbourne researcher has spotted a rare evolutionary phenomenon happening rapidly in real time in bats living in the Solomon Islands.
Evolution
Apr 22, 2024
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Scientists construct organo-phosphatic shells of brachiopods
Biomineralized columns, stacked in layers like a sandwich gave Cambrian brachiopod shells their strength and flexibility 520 million years ago.
Evolution
Apr 18, 2024
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Instinct for 'fight or flight' may be much older than we thought
Evidence in lampreys for the presence of a rudimentary sympathetic nervous system, previously thought to be unique to jawed vertebrates, has been presented in Nature. The finding may prompt a rethink of the origins of the ...
Evolution
Apr 18, 2024
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Researchers identify genetic variant that helped shape human skull base evolution
Humans, Homo sapiens, have unique features compared with other closely related hominin species and primates, including the shape of the base of the skull. The evolutionary changes underlying these features were significant ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why
Lost your keys? Can't remember where you parked the car? If only you had the memory of a mountain chickadee.
Plants & Animals
Apr 17, 2024
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How interspecies competition led to a 'bizarre' pattern in our own evolutionary tree
Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins—and produced a "bizarre" evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage—according to a new University of Cambridge study that revises the start ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Marine plankton behavior could predict future marine extinctions, study finds
Marine communities migrated to Antarctica during the Earth's warmest period in 66 million years long before a mass-extinction event.
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Amazon butterflies show how new species can evolve from hybridization
If evolution was originally depicted as a tree, with different species branching off as new blooms, then new research shows how the branches may actually be more entangled. In "Hybrid speciation driven by multilocus introgression ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Discovery of bacterial proteins that induce asexual reproduction in insects
From microbes in the human gut to symbiotic algae in coral reefs, research in recent decades has increasingly revealed the pivotal roles that microorganisms (or microbial species) play in shaping the biology of host organisms ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Other news
Managing meandering waterways in a changing world
Demonstration of heralded three-photon entanglement on a photonic chip
How much trust do people have in different types of scientists?
Freeze casting—a guide to creating hierarchically structured materials
Advanced cell atlas opens new doors in biomedical research
Scientists regenerate neural pathways in mice with cells from rats
Airborne single-photon lidar system achieves high-resolution 3D imaging
