Evolution, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 23, 2022

Massive tentacled microbe may be direct ancestor of all complex life

Ancient microbes whose existence predates the rise of nucleus-carrying cells on Earth may hold the secrets to how such complex cells first came to be. Now, for the first time, scientists have grown a large enough quantity of these microbes in the lab to study their internal structure in detail,...

Jan 15, 2023

Does evolution ever go backward?

Evolution has produced stunningly complex features, from neuron-studded octopus arms to the mammalian ear. Can evolution ever go backward, though, reverting complex creatures to previous, simpler forms? In so-called regressive evolution, organisms can lose complex features and thus appear to have evolved back into simpler forms. But evolution doesn't really...

Feb 6, 2023

Which came first: The chicken or the egg?

You've heard the age-old riddle: Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Taken metaphorically, it's a meditation on the futility of determining the cause of a self-perpetuating cycle. Taken literally, it's a great question for evolutionary biologists. Chickens come from eggs, but eggs come from chickens. So which came...

Feb 12, 2023

What energy source sparked the evolution of life?

Biologists aren't in full agreement about exactly where the first life on Earth appeared. It might have evolved at the bottom of the ocean, in shallow rock pools or from building blocks delivered by asteroid impacts — or maybe all of the above. We do know that all life on...

May 4, 2023

Weirdo blinking fish could hold the secrets to how our ancestors evolved to live on land, new study reveals

An ugly blinking fish could hold the secret to how ancient animals evolved the ability to live on land, a new study has found. Mudskippers, a subfamily of fish that live both on land and in the water, are the only fish that can blink, and they evolved this ability...

Jul 8, 2023

Did the Cambrian explosion really happen?

A cursory flip through any high school biology textbook will inevitably surface a mention of the Cambrian explosion, a period about 540 million to 520 million years ago during which many animal groups first sprang into life and diversified. The event is frequently described as rapid and prolific, evoking a...

Jul 24, 2023

Invisible barrier that runs through Indonesia finally explained by scientists

The longstanding puzzle of a gigantic evolutionary line has been solved more than 160 years after the boundary was first drawn up. The confusing line, which is both imaginary and real, arose millions of years ago after a continental collision triggered extreme climate change that impacted the species on each...

Jul 31, 2023

Are legs more important than arms?

Evolution has equipped animals with arms and legs of all shapes and sizes — but is one type of limb more important than the other? The answer lies in a different question: What species are you talking about? Animals live in different environments. They do different things ecologically, John Hutchinson,...

Sep 5, 2023

Why can't we smell ourselves as well as we smell others?

If you've ever taken public transportation after a visit to the gym or sat nervously on a date, maybe you've wondered whether your body odor is noticeable to other people. It's easy to tell when others are sweaty or have bad breath, and yet it seems much harder to gauge...

Feb 3, 2024

Genomes of 51 animal species mapped in record time, creating 'evolutionary time machine'

Researchers just mapped and published the genomes of 51 animal species, from fish-eating crocodiles known as gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) to fierce cloud leopards (Neofelis nebulosa). These genetic blueprints could have broad implications for humans, particularly for understanding our evolutionary history, according to a paper published Jan. 26 in the journal...

Feb 18, 2024

Why don't humans have gills?

Roughly 375 million years ago, a funny-looking fish named Tiktaalik ventured ashore using novel adaptations: lobed fins to propel itself to walk on land and air sacs in its throat to breathe oxygen from the air. Tiktaalik, which also had gills, is the earliest known common ancestor of tetrapods, or...