Dinosaurs and the evolution of breathing through bones
Dinosaurs' hyper-efficient breathing system also evolved in two other lineages. Enlarge / It takes careful study and the right kind of bones to determine how something like this breathed. (credit: Tito Aureliano et. al.).....»»
How flowers maintain water balance across different angiosperm branches
Flowers play an essential role in maintaining a species' genetic stability. Understanding how flowers regulate water use strategies to adapt to their environment is crucial for better understanding floral evolution and plant-pollinator-environment in.....»»
Duckbill dinosaur discovery in Morocco: Expert unpacks the mystery of how they got there
Why are fossils of duckbill dinosaurs, a North American family, found in North Africa?.....»»
How do halibut migrate? Clues are in their ear bones
Rising temperatures, changes in major currents, oxygen depletion at great depths: the Gulf of St. Lawrence has undergone major changes in its environmental conditions in recent decades. That has put many species in danger and, as a consequence, made.....»»
How ants are breaking down biogeographic boundaries and homogenizing biodiversity
Ants transported by humans out of their native zones reshape ant communities worldwide. A recent study in Nature Communications by the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) shows that our impact on biodiversity is o.....»»
Tanks of the triassic: New crocodile ancestor identified
Dinosaurs get all the glory. But aetosaurs, a heavily armored cousin of modern crocodiles, ruled the world before dinosaurs did. These tanks of the Triassic came in a variety of shapes and sizes before going extinct around 200 million years ago. Toda.....»»
Genetic basis for the evolution of hair discovered in the clawed frog
The development of hair was of central importance for the evolution of mammals and, thus, also of humans. However, the evolutionary origin of the genetic program of hair was previously unknown. An international research team led by Leopold Eckhart fr.....»»
Sequencing the blue whale and Etruscan shrew genomes
The blue whale genome was published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, and the Etruscan shrew genome was published in the journal Scientific Data......»»
Chiral transmission by an open evolution trajectory in a non-Hermitian system
In non-Hermitian systems, two or more eigenvalues and eigenstates of a resonant system coalesce at Exceptional points (EPs). Dynamic encircling of EPs has received significant interest in recent years, as it leads to highly nontrivial phenomena, such.....»»
Can genetic parasites alter interactions between microbes and hosts?
Researchers from the Max Planck Institutes (MPI) for Evolutionary Biology in Plön and for Biology in Tübingen have made significant progress in understanding the evolution of interactions between plants and microbes. The study focuses on Pseudomona.....»»
Newly discovered fossil of giant turtle is named after Stephen King novel character
An international research team led by Dr. Gabriel S. Ferreira from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen has described a new species of giant turtle from the late Pleistocene......»»
A brief guide to birdwatching in the age of dinosaurs
Have you ever wondered what it would be like travel back in time to the age of dinosaurs? If you stumble upon a time machine, remember to bring your binoculars. Birdwatching is a popular hobby today, with an around 3 million participants in the UK al.....»»
Gene flow in giraffes and what it means for their conservation
Giraffes are a beautiful and powerful example of what adaptive evolution can achieve. However, in recent years, they have attained notoriety for a completely different reason: it has been suggested that instead of one giraffe species, there might be.....»»
Webb and Hubble telescopes affirm the universe"s expansion rate, but the puzzle persists
The rate at which the universe is expanding, known as the Hubble constant, is one of the fundamental parameters for understanding the evolution and ultimate fate of the cosmos......»»
Transitioning to memory-safe languages: Challenges and considerations
In this Help Net Security interview, Omkhar Arasaratnam, General Manager at the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), discusses the evolution of memory-safe programming languages and their emergence in response to the limitations of languages li.....»»
New study discovers how altered protein folding drives multicellular evolution
Researchers have discovered a mechanism steering the evolution of multicellular life. They identify how altered protein folding drives multicellular evolution......»»
Titanosaurs were the biggest land animals Earth"s ever seen, combining reptile and mammal traits
You're probably familiar with classic sauropod dinosaurs—the four-legged herbivores famous for their long necks and tails. Animals such as Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus and Diplodocus have been standard fixtures in science museums since the 1800s......»»
How green corridors are breathing new life into French forests
In the summer of 2008, during a family holiday road trip, we passed by the Aquitaine region in southwestern France. As we drove through a sprawling woodland, a mesmerizing sight unfolded before my eyes: a meticulously ordered army of trees, standing.....»»
Horizontal gene transfer: How fungi improve their ability to infect insects
Researchers at the Kiel Evolution Center have investigated for the first time in detail how a fungus important for biological plant protection can pass on an advantageous chromosome horizontally, using a previously little-studied way of exchanging ge.....»»
New study reveals the evolutionary nature of animal friendships
Biologists from Stockholm University and University of Neuchâtel present groundbreaking research shedding new light on the evolution of social bonds and cooperation among group-living animals. The study was published in the journal PNAS......»»
Scientists use James Webb Space Telescope to uncover clues about Neptune"s evolution
A ring of icy rocks orbiting our sun just beyond Neptune may give us a glimpse of how Neptune—and other objects in the outskirts of our solar system—were formed......»»