Bacterial evolution in ancient sub-seafloor sediments
Micro-organisms persisting deep below the seafloor for millions of years continue to evolve despite living at the energy limit to life......»»
New insights into sauropod evolution: Discovery of tail clubs in India
A new University of Michigan study of dinosaur fossils from India has revealed that the sauropod dinosaur Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis wielded a bony tail club......»»
Retracing walrus ivory trade of Viking Age reveals early interactions between Europeans and Indigenous North Americans
By examining ancient walrus DNA, an international research team led by Lund University in Sweden have retraced the walrus ivory trade routes of the Viking Age. They found that Norse Vikings and Arctic Indigenous peoples were probably meeting and trad.....»»
Octopuses work together with fish to hunt—and the way they share decisions is surprisingly complex
A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution lifts the veil on what happens when octopuses and fish hunt together. As it turns out, this cross-species relationship is more complex than anyone expected......»»
Geologists discover mysterious subduction zone beneath Pacific, reshaping understanding of Earth"s interior
University of Maryland scientists uncovered evidence of an ancient seafloor that sank deep into Earth during the age of dinosaurs, challenging existing theories about Earth's interior structure. Located in the East Pacific Rise (a tectonic plate boun.....»»
Plant lineage study provides insights into the ecological and evolutionary effects of different reproductive strategies
Hang Sun's group from Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences has demonstrated the ecological and evolutionary effects of changes in plant reproductive strategies on phylogenetic evolution. The study is published in the journal Scien.....»»
How old is beer?
Humans are no strangers to kicking back with a cool pint of beer. The Ancient Egyptians, for example, had a hankering for beer that was a little bit tart, almost like a modern-day gose, a lemony beer from Germany. Homer, the Ancient Greek poet, spoke.....»»
AI trained on evolution"s playbook develops proteins that spur drug and scientific discovery
A new artificial intelligence model developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin paves the way for more effective and less toxic treatments and new preventive strategies in medicine. The AI model informs the design of protein-based t.....»»
Cretaceous fireflies reveal early evolution of insect bioluminescence
Bioluminescence, the ability of living organisms to emit light, is a fascinating phenomenon observed in various life forms, including deep-sea fish, glowing mushrooms, and fireflies. Fireflies have long captivated people with their enchanting light d.....»»
Frozen in time: Rock fossils hint at Mars"s ancient climate
Long ago, flowing wind and water shaped Mars's malleable sand and sediment into dunes, ripples and other landscape patterns, called bedforms. Over billions of years, some of these landforms hardened into rock—scientists then call them paleo-bedform.....»»
Study shows that ancient reef-building stromatoporoids dodged extinction—at least temporarily
Will modern coral reefs go extinct? The answer is uncertain, but some of their ancient counterparts managed to dodge a bullet—for a while, at least......»»
How coral and sediments helped to reconstruct 2.6 million years of climate history
Today's climate change is man-made. The consensus in the climate science community is unequivocal, but in order to determine just how exceptional current climate change is, we have had to contextualize the present on a much longer time scale. To do t.....»»
Bacterial "flipping" allows genes to assume different forms
Imagine being one cartwheel away from changing your appearance. One flip, and your brunette locks are platinum blond. That's not too far from what happens in some prokaryotes, or single-cell organisms, such as bacteria, that undergo something called.....»»
Medicinal tree successfully grown from 1,000-year-old seed found in cave
An international team of botanists, agriculturists and historians has successfully grown a mature tree from an ancient seed found in a cave in Israel. In their paper, published in the journal Communications Biology, the group describes where the seed.....»»
New evolutionary model revises the origins of biodiversity
An international team of scientists has made a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how global biodiversity evolved. By reconstructing the evolution of species over the past 45 million years, researchers found that the geographic origins.....»»
Afar mantle plume study offers new insight into deep Earth processes
Sophisticated analysis of tiny bubbles of ancient gas trapped in volcanic rocks, combined with new geophysical modeling, has cast new light on long-held assumptions about the deep Earth......»»
Ancient DNA helps uncover the Iberian lynx"s potential secret weapon against extinction
Many large mammals have lost genetic diversity, often thanks to the actions of people shrinking their populations. The implications can be severe because without genetic diversity, a population does not have a "genetic database" to fall back on to ad.....»»
Quantum sensing approach captures nanoscale electrochemical evolution in battery
Battery performance is heavily influenced by the non-uniformity and failure of individual electrode particles. Understanding the reaction mechanisms and failure modes at nanoscale level is key to advancing battery technologies and extending their lif.....»»
1,000-year-old textiles reveal cultural resilience in the ancient Andes
Archaeologists have analyzed textiles from the ancient city of Huacas de Moche, Peru, showing how the population's cultural traditions survived in the face of external influence......»»
A new catalog charts the evolution of the universe over time
An atlas doesn't seem to be an essential item in cars these days, but think about them and most people will think about distances. An atlas of the stars not only covers distances but must also take into account time too. The Andromeda galaxy, for exa.....»»
Human urine could be used as eco-friendly crop fertilizer: Study
Bacterial communities in soil are as resilient to human urine as synthetic fertilizers—making recycling the bodily fluid as a fertilizer for agricultural crops a viable proposition, according to a new study......»»