https://phys.org/biology-news/evolution en-us The latest science news on evolution What do you get when you cross Norse mythology with a 78-million-year-old ancestor to the Triceratops? Answer: Lokiceratops rangiformis, a plant-eating dinosaur with a very fancy set of horns. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-ornate-horns-ancient-marvel-lokiceratops.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 20 Jun 2024 08:00:01 EDT news638027641 People often underestimate tiny beings. But microscopic algal cells not only evolved to thrive in one of the most extreme habitats on Earth—glaciers—but are also shaping them. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-glacier-algae-evolution.html Evolution Cell & Microbiology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 11:59:04 EDT news638017141 A team of researchers at the University of Zurich has discovered that plants benefit from a greater variety of interactions with pollinators and herbivores. Plants that are pollinated by insects and have to defend themselves against herbivores have evolved to be better adapted to different types of soil. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-interaction-insects-evolution.html Evolution Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:35:02 EDT news638008501 Frogs have maintained a surprising diversity of light-sensing proteins over evolutionary time, according to a new study led by a Penn State researcher. Light-sensing proteins, called opsins, enable vision in sighted animals, and are responsible for many more biological functions including regulating circadian rhythms. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-unexpected-diversity-proteins-vision-frogs.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:32:04 EDT news637929122 The relationship between mother and child may offer clues to the mystery of why humans live longer lives than expected for their size—and shed new light on what it means to be human. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-maternal-central-factor-animal-human.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 17 Jun 2024 17:05:04 EDT news637862701 As organisms diversified on planet Earth, some branches of the tree of life became exceptionally diverse, others far less so. Still others went extinct. Why evolution favored certain groups over others is a long-standing question in evolutionary science. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-beetles-conquered-earth-evolving-biochemical.html Plants & Animals Evolution Mon, 17 Jun 2024 12:36:08 EDT news637846564 An international team of scientists has identified the oldest fossil of a sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere—a nothosaur vertebra found on New Zealand's South Island. 246 million years ago, at the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs, New Zealand was located on the southern polar coast of a vast super-ocean called Panthalassa. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-analysis-ancient-polar-sea-reptile.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 17 Jun 2024 11:00:01 EDT news637838542 A multidisciplinary team of scientists from several institutions in Japan, working with colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History, has found evidence that some types of ants that lived during the Cretaceous Period had sensory organs for communication similar to those used by many modern ant species. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-ants-millions-years-sensory-modern.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 17 Jun 2024 08:58:14 EDT news637833489 An international research team from Swansea University and UBC Okanagan (UBCO) has uncovered a new insight into human evolution by comparing humans' hearts with those of other great apes. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-architecture-heart-human-evolution.html Evolution Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:42:51 EDT news637584168 Parrots, songbirds, and hummingbirds can learn to make new sounds. No-one knew, but New Zealand's smallest bird, the rifleman or titipounamu, may have a rudimentary version of the same talent. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-tiny-zealand-bird-lesson-birdsong.html Plants & Animals Evolution Fri, 14 Jun 2024 10:32:04 EDT news637579921 Humans have radically altered the evolution of agricultural plants since World War Two, remaking our seed system with industrial agricultural practices to feed a growing population. Yet in the changing climate of decades to come, UVM researchers say, the seeds that will feed the world are in the hands of smallholder farmers. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-modern-seeds-ready-climate-smallholder.html Evolution Agriculture Thu, 13 Jun 2024 09:55:57 EDT news637491354 New research led by the University of Bath's Milner Centre for Evolution shows that shorebird species where females breed with multiple males in each season evolve significantly faster than monogamous species. Their findings suggest that mating systems of birds have a stronger effect on evolution rates than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-polyandrous-birds-evolve-faster-monogamous.html Plants & Animals Evolution Wed, 12 Jun 2024 13:11:33 EDT news637416691 In a study appearing in Nature, an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reconstructed the evolutionary history and global spread of malaria over the past 5,500 years, identifying trade, warfare, and colonialism as major catalysts for its dispersal. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-reconstruct-ancient-genomes-deadly.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 12 Jun 2024 11:00:01 EDT news637406451 Soaring birds—like osprey, eagles, falcons, even vultures—can stay aloft in the air seemingly forever, rarely flapping their wings. They glide along rising air currents in a way that has fascinated humans and scientists for centuries. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-air-sac-birds-lungs-believed.html Plants & Animals Evolution Wed, 12 Jun 2024 11:00:01 EDT news637402382 Fossils in Brazil indicate a more complex evolutionary history for ray-finned fish brains than previously anticipated, according to new research. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-rare-brazilian-fossil-fishes.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 12 Jun 2024 09:47:04 EDT news637404421 Scientists have a handful of standard research organisms, including fruit flies and mice, that they use to study the evolutionary development (evo-devo) of animal lineages over time. Yet the more research organisms they can study, the deeper our understanding of life and the more knowledge we have to advance biomedicine and ecological conservation. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-sea-cucumber-species-toolbox.html Plants & Animals Evolution Fri, 07 Jun 2024 13:07:03 EDT news636984421 The annual killifish lives in regions with extreme drought. A research group at the University of Basel now reports in Science that the early embryogenesis of killifish diverges from that of other species. Unlike other fish, their body structure is not predetermined from the outset. This could enable the species to survive dry periods unscathed. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-fish-killifish-embryos.html Evolution Cell & Microbiology Thu, 06 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news636891481 Around 100 million years ago, a remarkable evolutionary shift allowed placental mammals to diversify and conquer many cold regions of our planet. New research from Stockholm University shows that the typical mammalian heater organ, brown fat, evolved exclusively in modern placental mammals. The work is published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-marsupials-key-heater-mammals.html Plants & Animals Evolution Thu, 06 Jun 2024 14:00:01 EDT news636883398 In Hungary, ethological research is most often identified with tests on dogs, but novel methodological advances could bring another species, the paradise fish, into the spotlight. Fish are easy to handle and produce numerous offspring, which could open up new possibilities for researchers in the fields of evolution and behavioral genetics. Researchers from ELTE Eötvös Loránd University have highlighted the importance of this old-new model animal in recent publications. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-importance-paradise-fish-evolutionary-behavioral.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 05 Jun 2024 17:33:03 EDT news636827581 Studying the impact of the environment on animal evolution is no easy task, as most animals reproduce slowly and exhibit complex behaviors. However, microbiologists have an advantage: Bacteria reproduce rapidly, which makes them a much easier subject for studying evolution. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-symbiotic-bacteria-big-environmental.html Evolution Cell & Microbiology Tue, 04 Jun 2024 10:38:06 EDT news636716281 Why do giraffes have such long necks? A study led by Penn State biologists explores how this trait might have evolved and lends new insight into this iconic question. The reigning hypothesis is that competition among males influenced neck length, but the research team found that female giraffes have proportionally longer necks than males—suggesting that high nutritional needs of females may have driven the evolution of this trait. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-food-sex-drove-evolution-giraffes.html Plants & Animals Evolution Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:13:04 EDT news636635581 The sharks we know today as the open ocean's top predators evolved from stubby bottom dwellers during a dramatic episode of global warming millions of years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-sharks-survived-major-spike-earth.html Plants & Animals Evolution Mon, 03 Jun 2024 11:00:01 EDT news636621783 50,000 years ago, North America was ruled by megafauna. Lumbering mammoths roamed the tundra, while forests were home to towering mastodons, fierce saber-toothed tigers and enormous wolves. Bison and extraordinarily tall camels moved in herds across the continent, while giant beavers plied its lakes and ponds. Immense ground sloths weighing over 1,000 kg were found across many regions east of the Rocky Mountains. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-clues-mysterious-north-america-large.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 31 May 2024 12:45:15 EDT news636378311 Plants and the animals that eat them have evolved together in fascinating ways, creating a dynamic interplay of survival strategies. Many plants have developed physical and chemical defenses to fend off herbivores. A well-known strategy in flowering plants is to produce nectar to attract "ant bodyguards." Recent research explores the evolution of this same defense strategy in ferns. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-evolution-ferns-sweet-defense-strategy.html Plants & Animals Evolution Thu, 30 May 2024 15:30:03 EDT news636301801 The theory of coevolution says that when closely interacting species drive evolutionary changes in each other this can lead to speciation—the evolution of new species. But until now, real-world evidence for this has been scarce. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-cuckoos-evolve-hosts-species.html Evolution Ecology Thu, 30 May 2024 14:00:01 EDT news636292021 Mauricio González-Forero, an evolutionary biologist at the University of St Andrews, in the U.K., is proposing a new theory to explain the massive growth of the human brain over its evolutionary history. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-evolutionary-biologist-human-brain-grew.html Evolution Thu, 30 May 2024 10:20:01 EDT news636281760 A Mississippi State faculty member's work on plant life symbiosis—a mutually beneficial relationship between living organisms—is pushing back against the newer theory of "single-origin"—that all life stems from one point—instead suggesting "multiple-origin" theory which opens a better understanding for genetically engineering crops. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-symbiosis-exposes-theories-experimental-life.html Evolution Agriculture Wed, 29 May 2024 17:27:03 EDT news636222422 Traits are often lost during evolution, either because they are no longer beneficial or because they are too costly to maintain. When this happens, it is generally believed that the genes underlying the trait will eventually degrade as well, making it difficult if not impossible for the trait to re-emerge. Yet there are numerous examples in nature of once-lost traits re-emerging in descendent lineages. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-reveals-maintenance-male-genes-loss.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 29 May 2024 16:52:03 EDT news636220321 The new measure, termed "evolutionary heritage," highlights the importance of unique species traits—which include physiological adaptations, like beak variations in different birds—when assessing the richness and complexity of life. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-fossils-unique-ancient.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 29 May 2024 12:11:55 EDT news636203512 A new model, developed by Ifremer and Lausanne University researchers and published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, reassesses the proportion of terrestrial and marine species threatened with extinction by climate change. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-species-tolerate-climate.html Evolution Ecology Wed, 29 May 2024 12:07:03 EDT news636203221