http://www.physorg.com/biology-news/evolution/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on evolution (PhysOrg.com) -- Ancient DNA retrieved from extinct horse species from around the world has challenged one of the textbook examples of evolution - the fossil record of the horse family Equidae over the past 55 million years. http://www.physorg.com/news179653662.html Biology - Evolution Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:40:01 EST news179653662 In contrast to the exhaustive research into venom produced by snakes and spiders, venomous fish have been neglected and remain something of a mystery. Now, a study of 158 catfish species, published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, has catalogued the presence of venom glands and investigated their biological effects. http://www.physorg.com/news179133781.html Biology - Evolution Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:24:07 EST news179133781 To Charles Darwin it was an 'abominable mystery' and it is a question which has continued to vex evolutionists to this day: when did flowering plants evolve and how did they come to dominate plant life on earth? Today a study in Ecology Letters reveals the evolutionary trigger which led to early flowering plants gaining a major competitive advantage over rival species, leading to their subsequent boom and abundance. http://www.physorg.com/news178887468.html Biology - Evolution Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:58:49 EST news178887468 The world's largest species of monkey 'chooses' mates with genes that are different from their own to guarantee healthy and strong offspring, according to a new research study. http://www.physorg.com/news178315092.html Biology - Evolution Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:59:12 EST news178315092 Penguins that died 44,000 years ago in Antarctica have provided extraordinary frozen DNA samples that challenge the accuracy of traditional genetic aging measurements, and suggest those approaches have been routinely underestimating the age of many specimens by 200 to 600 percent. http://www.physorg.com/news177083943.html Biology - Evolution Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:59:42 EST news177083943 Rice University evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan Strassmann argue in a new paper that high cooperation and low conflict between components, from the genetic level on up, give a living thing its "organismality," whether that thing is an animal, a plant, a bacteria - or a colony. http://www.physorg.com/news176990429.html Biology - Evolution Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:06:53 EST news176990429 (PhysOrg.com) -- A painstaking analysis of thousands of genes and the proteins they encode shows that human beings are biologically complex, at least in part, because of the way humans evolved to cope with redundancies arising from duplicate genes. http://www.physorg.com/news176478025.html Biology - Evolution Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:40:54 EST news176478025 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a theoretical model that informs the understanding of evolution and determines how quickly an organism will evolve using a catalogue of "evolutionary speed limits." The model provides quantitative predictions for the speed of evolution on various "fitness landscapes," the dynamic and varied conditions under which bacteria, viruses and even humans adapt. http://www.physorg.com/news176390372.html Biology - Evolution Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:50:04 EST news176390372 (PhysOrg.com) -- Unnoticed by the nearby residents of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, tiny leaf beetles that flit among the maple and willow trees in the area have just provided some of the clearest evidence yet that environmental factors play a major role in the formation of new species. http://www.physorg.com/news176123110.html Biology - Evolution Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:12:32 EST news176123110 (PhysOrg.com) -- It is widely believed that women live long post-reproductive lives to help care for their grandchildren. According to the "Grandmother Hypothesis," post-menopausal women can increase their genetic contribution to future generations by increasing the survivorship of their grandchildren. http://www.physorg.com/news176054402.html Biology - Evolution Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:01:00 EST news176054402 When Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species 150 years ago, he deliberately avoided the subject of the origin of life. This, coupled with the mention of the 'Creator' in the last paragraph of the book, led us to believe he was not willing to commit on the matter. An international team, led by Juli Peretó of the Cavanilles Institute in Valencia, now refutes that idea and shows that the British naturalist did explain in other documents how our first ancestors could have come into being. http://www.physorg.com/news175861437.html Biology - Evolution Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:24:20 EST news175861437 (PhysOrg.com) -- OK, it takes two for human reproduction, and now it seems that plants and animals that can rely on either a partner or go alone by self-fertilization give their offspring a better chance for longer lives when they opt for a mate. http://www.physorg.com/news175352648.html Biology - Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:05:04 EST news175352648 A team of Spanish and Portuguese researchers has carried out molecular genetic analysis of the Y chromosome (transmitted only by males) of the aboriginal population of the Canary Islands to determine their origin and the extent to which they have survived in the current population. The results suggest a North African origin for these paternal lineages which, unlike maternal lineages, have declined to the point of being practically replaced today by European lineages. http://www.physorg.com/news175350099.html Biology - Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:50:04 EST news175350099 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new book claims even modern athletes could not run as fast, jump as high, or have been nearly as strong as our predecessors. http://www.physorg.com/news175332184.html Biology - Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:24:47 EST news175332184 Although advances in medical care have improved standards of living over time, humans aren't entirely sheltered from the forces of natural selection, a new study shows. http://www.physorg.com/news175185659.html Biology - Evolution Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:41:34 EST news175185659 A 21-year Michigan State University experiment that distills the essence of evolution in laboratory flasks not only demonstrates natural selection at work, but could lead to biotechnology and medical research advances, researchers said. http://www.physorg.com/news175092009.html Biology - Evolution Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:41:06 EST news175092009 Emory University researchers have identified the first fish known to have switched from ultraviolet vision to violet vision, or the ability to see blue light. The discovery is also the first example of an animal deleting a molecule to change its visual spectrum. http://www.physorg.com/news174914029.html Biology - Evolution Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:14:50 EST news174914029 Standing out in a crowd is better than blending in, at least if you're a paper wasp in a colony where fights between nest-mates determine social status. http://www.physorg.com/news174827689.html Biology - Evolution Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:15:46 EST news174827689 There is no doubt that modern contraception has enabled women to have unprecedented control over their own fertility. However, is it possible that the use of oral contraceptives is interfering with a woman's ability to choose, compete for and retain her preferred mate? A new paper published by Cell Press in the October issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution reviews emerging evidence suggesting that contraceptive methods which alter a woman's natural hormonal cycles may have an underappreciated impact on choice of partners for both women and men and, possibly, reproductive success. http://www.physorg.com/news174140457.html Biology - Evolution Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:10:01 EST news174140457 (PhysOrg.com) -- Staying at home may have given the very first termite youngsters the best opportunity to rule the colony when their parents were killed by their neighbors. This is according to new research supported by the National Science Foundation and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news173976128.html Biology - Evolution Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:20:13 EST news173976128 The human brain has evolved over millions of years to become a vast network of billions of neurons and synaptic connections. Understanding it is one of humankind's greatest pursuits. http://www.physorg.com/news173701962.html Biology - Evolution Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:33:27 EST news173701962 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cheaters may prosper in the short term, but over time they seem doomed to fail, at least in the microscopic world of amoebas where natural selection favors the noble. http://www.physorg.com/news173610537.html Biology - Evolution Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:09:27 EST news173610537 When the ancestors of living cetaceans -whales, dolphins and porpoises -first dipped their toes into water, a series of evolutionary changes were sparked that ultimately nestled these swimming mammals into the larger hoofed animal group. But what happened first, a change from a plant-based diet to a carnivorous diet, or the loss of their ability to walk? http://www.physorg.com/news173031353.html Biology - Evolution Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:00:04 EST news173031353 (PhysOrg.com) -- Today's Scandinavians are not descended from the people who came to Scandinavia at the conclusion of the last ice age but, apparently, from a population that arrived later, concurrently with the introduction of agriculture. This is one conclusion of a new study straddling the borderline between genetics and archaeology, which involved Swedish researchers and which has now been published in the journal Current Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news173022084.html Biology - Evolution Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:20:01 EST news173022084 (PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Oregon research team has found that evolution can never go backwards, because the paths to the genes once present in our ancestors are forever blocked. The findings -- the result of the first rigorous study of reverse evolution at the molecular level -- appear in the Sept. 24 issue of Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news172931418.html Biology - Evolution Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:31:30 EST news172931418 When it comes to understanding a critical junction in animal evolution, some short, simple flatworms have been a real thorn in scientists' sides. Specialists have jousted over the proper taxonomic placement of a group of worms called Acoelomorpha. This collection of worms, which comprises roughly 350 species, is part of a much larger group called bilateral animals, organisms that have symmetrical body forms, including humans, insects and worms. The question about acoelomorpha, was: Where do they fit in? http://www.physorg.com/news172924812.html Biology - Evolution Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:43:18 EST news172924812 Which genes make us uniquely human? Scientists are looking at DNA in old bones to find out. The focus now is not so much on our own species, Homo sapiens. Instead, scientists are probing DNA in well-preserved pieces of bone from our closest extinct relative, the Neanderthal. http://www.physorg.com/news172567188.html Biology - Evolution Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:20:28 EST news172567188 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive in open oceans. http://www.physorg.com/news172326271.html Biology - Evolution Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:00:02 EST news172326271 An international team of researchers, including Monash University biochemists, has discovered evidence at the molecular level in support of one of the key tenets of Darwin's theory of evolution. http://www.physorg.com/news172145598.html Biology - Evolution Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:14:16 EST news172145598 The smell of recent death or injury that repels living relatives of insects has been identified as a truly ancient signal that functions to avoid disease or predators, biologists have discovered. http://www.physorg.com/news171892983.html Biology - Evolution Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:03:32 EST news171892983