Terrestrial ecosystems took up to 8 million years to rebound fully from the...
The cataclysmic events that marked the end of the Permian Period some 252 million years ago were a watershed moment in the history of life on Earth. As much as 90 percent of ocean organisms were...
View ArticleDNA bar codes reveal quack medicines, insect immigrants, and what eats what
The newfound scientific power to quickly “fingerprint” species via DNA is being deployed to unmask quack herbal medicines, reveal types of ancient Arctic life frozen in permafrost, expose what eats...
View ArticleDarwin: A Very Short Introduction
Description Darwin’s theory that man’s ancestors were apes caused an uproar within the scientific world, as well as public frenzy when The Origin of Species was published in 1859. Arguments still rage...
View ArticleOldest weapons ever found, 300,000 years old, at archaeological dig in Germany
Finds from early stone age site in north-central Germany show that human ingenuity is nothing new – and was probably shared by now-extinct species of humans. Archeologists from the University of...
View ArticleLife crashed to Earth from space: new evidence
Microorganisms that crashed to Earth embedded in the fragments of distant planets might have been the sprouts of life on this one, according to new research presented at the European Planetary...
View ArticleCats drove the extinction of many species of ancient dogs
Competition played a more important role in the evolution of the dog family (wolves, foxes, and their relatives) than climate change, shows a new international study published in PNAS. An...
View ArticleHumankind: How Biology and Geography Shape Human Diversity
An innovative and illuminating look at how the evolution of the human species has been shaped by the world around us, from anatomy and physiology, to cultural diversity and population density. Where...
View ArticleHow Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds
Modern birds descended from a group of two-legged dinosaurs known as theropods, whose members include the towering Tyrannosaurus rex and the smaller velociraptors. The theropods most closely related...
View ArticleSA fossil is the long-awaited link to the evolution of turtles: University of...
A 260-million-year-old fossil species found in South Africa’s Karoo Basin continues to provide information into the murky origins of turtles whose evolution fascinates scientists. The fossil of an...
View ArticleHome Naledi, New Species of Human Relative, Discovered
Newswise — An international research team, which includes NYU anthropologists Scott Williams and Myra Laird, has discovered a new species of a human relative. Homo naledi, uncovered in a cave outside...
View ArticleWhat scientists thought they knew about the solar system may be quite wrong
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft detected molecules of oxygen surrounding the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, reports a study published Thursday in the journal Nature. Although...
View ArticleThe common ancestor of all apes may have been a little guy
Did apes shrink or grow throughout evolution? Scientists have long thought that small-bodied apes shrunk as they diverged from the great apes, a group that includes humans. But the common ancestor of...
View ArticleBiologists induce flatworms to grow heads and brains of other species
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (November 24, 2015)–Biologists at Tufts University have succeeded in inducing one species of flatworm to grow heads and brains characteristic of another species of flatworm...
View ArticleWho is Lucy the Australopithecus: Why do we call her ‘Lucy’?
When Lucy the Australopithecus was unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974, she seemed to fill a gap in the human family tree. The 3.2-million-year-old hominid had both ape and human characteristics. Lucy, of...
View ArticleAlien life, if it exists, could be as simple as bacteria
Physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked the question “Where are they?” to express his surprise over the absence of any signs for the existence of other intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy....
View ArticleNeanderthals and modern H. sapiens crossbred over 100,000 years ago
A multidisciplinary team which included participants from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has discovered that Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens crossbred over 100,000 years ago. This...
View Article