Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
- Animals
These killer whales exhale sickening germs
A group of endangered killer whales are exhaling disease-causing germs. Researchers worry these microbes could make the animals sick.
- Fossils
Fossils offer new candidate for earliest life
Rock unearthed in Canada appears to hold fossils from seafloor microbes that would have lived around 4 billion years ago, when Earth was very young.
- Science & Society
Fossils point to Neandertal diets — and medicine use
Whether Neandertals were largely meat-eaters or vegans depended on their environment, fossils now suggest. Their teeth also indicate they used natural medicines.
- Agriculture
World’s tallest corn towers nearly 14 meters
Short nights and a genetic tweak helped novel corn reach record heights.
- Animals
Dinosaur tail preserved in amber — feathers and all
Scientists have found the tail of a dinosaur trapped in amber. It includes both feathers and identifiable bits of bone.
- Animals
Animals can do ‘almost math’
Humans aren’t the only animals with a number sense. Scientists are trying to figure out where and when it evolved.
- Animals
Speckled dino spurs debate about ancient animals’ colors
Structures found in fossil dinosaur skin may give clues to the creatures’ colors and how they lived. But not all scientists agree on how to interpret what they see.
- Animals
Dino brain found ‘pickled’ in boggy swamp
Scientists claim to have identified the first fossil brain tissue from a dinosaur.
- Genetics
Human DNA carries hints of unknown extinct ancestor
A new study suggests people today carry genetic traces of now-extinct species unknown to science.
- Climate
Globe’s non-Africans all descend from a single move out of Africa
Look back far enough and everybody’s ancestors were African no more than 72,000 years ago. Climate scientists would up that date to perhaps 100,000 years ago.
- Animals
Tasmanian devils begin to resist infectious cancer
A deadly contagious cancer is spreading among Tasmanian devils. But the animals are evolving resistance, a new study finds.
- Life
Scientists watch germs evolve into superbugs
To study how bacteria can evolve resistance to a wide variety of drugs, scientists spread the germs on a food-filled plate the size of a foosball table. Then, they watched resistance rise.
