MS-LS4-2
Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
- Animals
Piranhas and plant-eating kin replace half their teeth at once
Piranhas and pacus shed and replace half of their teeth at a time. New teeth lock together as they push up from the jaw.
- Animals
Blood vessels in their heads kept big dinos from overheating
Giant dinosaurs evolved several ways to cool their blood and avoid heatstroke.
- Animals
DNA tells tale of how cats conquered the world
Ancient DNA study suggests that domesticated cats spread across the ancient world in two waves.
- Archaeology
European fossils may belong to earliest known hominid
New fossils suggest that the earliest non-ape human ancestors may have evolved in Europe, not Africa.
- Fossils
Study claims to have found oldest human fossils
Humans, as a species, may be much older than previously thought. They also may have evolved further North and West of the suspected cradle of human evolution.
- Animals
How the house mouse found its home
Once people started settling down 15,000 years ago, a mouse species followed them indoors. The animals didn’t need people to be farming and storing food.
- Life
Weird mega-worm found to have odd diet
Giant shipworms have bacteria in their gills that produce food for them. This has made their digestive organs shrink from lack of use.
- 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.
- 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
Dino brain found ‘pickled’ in boggy swamp
Scientists claim to have identified the first fossil brain tissue from a dinosaur.
- 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.
