Evolutionary Biology News (61 articles) by Insciences

Research reveals potential reservoir species, new mechanism for how mammals acquire genes.BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Modern marsupials may be popular animals at the zoo and in children's books, but new findings by University at Buffalo biologists reveal that they harbor a "fossil" copy of a gene...

Published on 28 June 2010, 13:32

Categories: Viruses Filoviruses Mammals Wallabies Evolutionary Biology

Recent climate change has shifted the flowering time of many plant species. During the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010, this flowering time shift has been highlighted because coordination between pollinating animals and plants could be at risk. Professor Dr. Kentaro Shimizu, a plant...

Published on 8 June 2010, 01:59

Categories: Arabidopsis halleri Climate Climate Change Evolutionary Biology FLC Plant flowering PLants Vernalization

To evolve or not to evolve? That is the question scientists are closer to answering following a groundbreaking new study into the colourful hamlet fish.Little is known about the way species evolve in the vast marine environment. The new findings, published online today by the journal Global...

Published on 23 April 2010, 05:21

Categories: Hamlet Fish Evolutionary Biology Speciation Hamlets Marine Science

Findings based on analysis of largest set of genetic markers ever studied.Dogs likely originated in the Middle East, not Asia or Europe, according to a new genetic analysis by an international team of scientists led by UCLA biologists. The research, funded by the National Science Foundation...

Published on 17 March 2010, 15:31

Categories: Dogs Middle East Wolves Dogs genetic analysis Evolutionary Biology Modern dogs Middle Eastern wolves Single nucleotide polymorphism SNP

Researchers sequence the oldest ancient genome to date from a mammal.BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A rare, ancient polar bear fossil discovered in Norway in 2004 is yielding a treasure trove of essential information about the age and evolutionary origins of the species whose future is now seen as synonymous...

Published on 1 March 2010, 16:01

Categories: Genome Sequencing Evolutionary Biology Polar bears Brown Bears Climate

Small molecules give EMBL scientists bigger picture of animal evolution.The last ancestor we shared with worms, which roamed the seas around 600 million years ago, may already have had a sophisticated brain that released hormones into the blood and was connected to various sensory organs. The...

Published on 1 February 2010, 06:48

Categories: Animal evolution Evolutionary Biology microRNAs Platynereis dumerilii

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A team of researchers including scientists from the University of Florida has shown insect colonies follow some of the same biological “rules” as individuals, a finding that suggests insect societies operate like a single “superorganism” in terms of their physiology...

Published on 19 January 2010, 09:59

Categories: Ants Bees Evolutionary Biology Insect colonies Insects Superorganisms Wasps

New Haven, Conn. — Thanks to genetic data gleaned from the bones found in a several museum collections, an international team of researchers led by scientists from Yale believes it may be possible to resurrect a tortoise species hunted to extinction by whalers visiting the Galapagos Islands...

Published on 15 January 2010, 13:32

Categories: Chelonoidis elephantopus Evolutionary Biology Tortoise Species Tortoises Turtles

New Haven, Conn. — Female ducks have evolved an intriguing way to avoid becoming impregnated by undesirable but aggressive males endowed with large corkscrew-shaped penises: vaginas with clockwise spirals that thwart oppositely spiraled males.More details of this evolutionary battle of the...

Published on 23 December 2009, 06:30

Categories: Duck Sex Ducks Evolutionary Biology

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.The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,...

Published on 10 December 2009, 05:18

Categories: DNA Horses Horse Species Equidae Evolutionary Biology Zebra

New research by Simon Fraser University evolutionary biologist Bernard Crespi reinforces his theory that autism and schizophrenia are diametric or opposite conditions based on genes.His latest study, Comparative Genomics of Autism and Schizophrenia, is published (Nov. 30) in the Proceedings of...

Published on 1 December 2009, 07:06

Categories: Autism Schizophrenia Genes Evolutionary Biology Genomics

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.The results obtained from mandrills, a species closely related to humans, support the disputed theory that humans...

Published on 25 November 2009, 03:51

Categories: Monkeys Species Mandrills Evolutionary Biology Smell Genetics Major Histocompatibility Complex MHC

UCLA biologists, colleagues solve mystery contemplated by Charles Darwin.When Charles Darwin visited the Falkland Islands during the voyage of the Beagle in 1835, he saw a wolf-like species, wrote about it in his diaries and correctly commented that it was being hunted in such large numbers that...

Published on 12 November 2009, 18:21

Categories: Bush dog Evolutionary Biology Falkland Islands wolf Falklands Mammals Maned wolf Wolf

Why do so many animal species — including fish, birds and insects — display such rich diversity in coloration and other traits? In new research, Gregory Grether, UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Christopher Anderson, who recently earned his doctorate...

Published on 31 October 2009, 09:41

Categories: Animals Animals Species Colors Coloration Evolutionary Biology Fish Birds Insects

BERKELEY — Experiments led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have demonstrated that normally friendly ants can turn against each other by exploiting the chemical cues they use to distinguish colony-mates from rivals.The new study, to be published Wednesday, Oct. 28, in...

Published on 27 October 2009, 18:54

Categories: Ants Chemicals Linepithema humile Ants social behavior Argentine ants Insects Chemical recognition Evolutionary Biology

University of Oregon research shows why a mate provides an evolutionary advantage over self-fertilizationEUGENE, Ore. -- (Oct. 21, 2009) -- 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...

Published on 21 October 2009, 13:06

Categories: Caenorhabditis elegans Evolutionary Biology Self-fertilization Selfing Worms

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- University of Maryland biologists have genetically mapped the sex chromosomes of several species of cichlid fish from Lake Malawi, East Africa, and identified a mechanism by which new sex chromosomes may evolve. In research published in the journal Science (October 1, 2009),...

Published on 1 October 2009, 17:58

Categories: Cichlid fish Evolutionary Biology Fish Sex chromosomes Sex determination Species

In the most computationally intensive phylogenetic analysis to date, an international research team led by Brown University has found the first evolutionary branching for bilateral animals. The researchers determined that the flatworm group Acoelomorpha is a product of the deepest split within...

Published on 23 September 2009, 16:17

Categories: Acoelomorpha Bilateral Animals Cycliophora Deuterostomia Evolutionary Biology Worms Xenoturbella

Live birth -- key to much marine life -- depends upon evolution of chromosomal sex determination.Cambridge, Mass. -  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...

Published on 17 September 2009, 09:42

Categories: Genetics Sex Determination Marine Science Evolutionary Biology Marine reptiles

New Haven, Conn. — The large group of segmented worms known as annelids, which includes earthworms, leeches and bristle worms, evolved millions of years ago and can be found in every corner of the world. Although annelids are one of the most abundant animal groups on the planet, scientists...

Published on 9 September 2009, 11:28

Categories: MicroRNAs Annelids Worms Evolutionary Biology