Evolution
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May 24 | News
In
the course of its evolution, the architecture of the mouse brain may
have barely changed. In fact, researchers point to it as a “living
fossil” of brain development, preserving our ancestors’ neuronal
circuits’ architecture. Comparative analysis now shows where those
changes occurred after the extinction of dinosaurs and the growth of
mammals.
May 21 | News
Catching
a crocodile or alligator to obtain a blood sample for testing is often
done at night by a boat or a canoe. A snout snare eases the process, but
it’s still a nerve-wracking experience. The samples are for the first
mapping project for crocodile and alligator genomes, and it’s also the
among the first such efforts to be done on a reptile species.
May 10 | News
A new essay in the journal PLoS Biology,
examines what really constitutes “life” and the probability of
discovering new life forms. Gerald Joyce, from The Scripps Research
Institute, discusses in the essay the basic requirements for a life form
to exist, and how it might fit into the forms alien life could take.
May 7 | News
One of the world's most important fossils, the Taung fossil, has a story to tell about the brain evolution of modern humans and their ancestors, according to Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk. Their findings suggest brain evolution was a result of a complex set of interrelated dynamics in childbirth among new bipeds.
Apr 26 | News
A
150-pound fossil recovered last year in northern Kentucky is more than 6
feet long and 3 feet wide. To the untrained eye, it looks like a bunch
of rocks or a concrete blob. Experts are trying to determine whether it
was an animal, mineral or a form of plant life from a time when the
Cincinnati region was underwater. So far, it has everyone at a loss.
Apr 17 | News
Research
led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History shows that
ammonites—an extinct type of shelled mollusk that's closely related to
modern-day nautiluses and squids—made homes in the unique environments
surrounding methane seeps in the seaway that once covered America's
Great Plains. These findings show that mobile shelled mollusk stayed put
if conditions were right.
Apr 16 | News
Evolutionary
biologists at the University of Toronto have found that individuals
with low-quality genes may produce offspring with even more inferior
chromosomes, possibly leading to the extinction of certain species over
generations.
Apr 16 | News
The
simple answer is auxin, a plant hormone. But the transport of auxin
through the plant is a complex and little-understood process. Recent
research in Europe has identified an important new link in this process,
finding that auxin is stored in specific sites.
Apr 16 | News
A
study of the expression of approximately 1,000 genes in the brains of
individual humans and mice has shed light on the human brain’s structure
and its high degree of similarity among humans. Only 5% of the nearly
1,000 genes surveyed in three particular regions show differences in
expression between humans, and even compared mice there is great
consistency.
Apr 13 | News
Chloroplasts
were once living beings in their own right, before being swallowed up
by larger cells and used as solar power generators. Until recent
research that fast-forwarded the lengthy evolutionary process, the
mechanism for this change were not understand. According this new work,
chloroplast genes take a direct route to the cell nucleus, where the
gene function can be correctly read despite the structural differences
in the DNA.
