HS-LS4-3
Apply concepts of statistics and probability to support explanations that organisms with an advantageous heritable trait tend to increase in proportion to organisms lacking this trait.
- Tech
Virtual critters evolve bodies that help them learn
A combination of evolution and learning may lead to more intelligent and agile robots.
- Fossils
Bright-colored feathers may have topped pterosaurs’ heads
Fossil remains of a flying reptile hint that their vibrant crests may have originated 250 million years ago in a common ancestor with dinosaurs.
- Animals
A dog’s breed doesn’t say much about its behavior
Many people associate dog breeds with specific behavioral traits. But breed appears to account for only about 9 percent of behavioral differences.
- Animals
Losing some genes may explain how vampire bats can live on blood
Loss of 13 genes active in other bats could support the vampires’ blood-eating strategies and adaptations.
- Archaeology
Our species may have reached Europe while Neandertals were there
Archaeological finds from an ancient French rock-shelter show periodic settlements by both populations, just not at the same time.
- Animals
Scientists discover the first true millipede
The newfound deep-living species tunnels belowground using a whopping 1,306 legs!
- Life
Scientists Say: Adaptation
This word refers to a feature of a living thing that helps it better survive in its environment — or the process of that feature evolving in a population.
- Animals
Will the woolly mammoth return?
Scientists are using genetic engineering and cloning to try to bring back extinct species or save endangered ones. Here’s how and why.
- Animals
Tiny animals survive 24,000 years in suspended animation
Tiny bdelloid rotifers awake from a 24,000-year slumber when freed from the Arctic permafrost.
- Microbes
Explainer: Virus variants and strains
When viruses become more infectious or better able to survive the body’s immune system, they become a type of variant known as a strain.
- Life
Even raised by people, wolves don’t tune into you like your dog
Dog puppies outpace wolf pups at engaging with humans, even with less exposure to people, supporting the idea that domestication changed dogs’ brains.
- Fossils
Dinosaur families appear to have lived in the Arctic year-round
Fossils of baby dinosaurs in northern Alaska challenge the idea that northern dinosaurs only spent their summers in the high Arctic.
