Evolution

How Apples Sparked an Evolutionary Domino Effect Among Insects

When it comes to the emergence of new lifeforms, we typically think of a single species evolving into another. But as a new study of fruit flies and parasitic wasps demonstrates, the emergence of a new species can set off a domino effect that, in this case, creates not one, but several new species. An…

This Extinct Species is Changing What We Know About Early Ape Evolution

Meet Pliobates catalonia, an extinct species of ape that roamed the jungles of Catalonia some 11.5 million years ago. Because of this ancient creature’s many surprising physical characteristics, researchers are having to revise their conceptions of what the last common ancestor of all living apes—humans included—might have looked like. Pliobates lived long after a time…

A Reptile With No Penis Just Solved a Baffling Scientific Mystery

The tuatara isn’t actually a lizard. It’s the last survivor of a 250 million year old group of reptiles that mostly went extinct with the dinosaurs. It doesn’t have a penis, and ironically, that’s made it a linchpin for understanding how penises evolved in vertebrates. The tuatara’s penis-less state stands out because the other descendants…

The Controversy over Homo Naledi Is Actually A Good Thing

Homo naledi, the newly discovered species of early hominin announced last month, is drawing a lot of fire from paleoanthropologists. For one thing, there’s still debate over whether Homo naledi is actually a new species at all. Some anthropologists, like Jeffrey Schwarz, say the specimens look more like an early human ancestor from a whole…

Crocs Keep an Eye on You While They Sleep

Sleeping with only half your brain sounds like a great way to become a zombie in no time, but for certain marine mammals and birds, it’s a way of life. A new study suggests that crocodiles, too, may be “unihemispheric” sleepers, a finding which makes humans and other full-brain snoozers look more and more like…

Some Bees Prefer Mates That Speak Their Language

Ever wonder what might make one species split in two? A new study in the journal Current Biology shows that it could come down to a simple female preference for a specific type of buzz. Red mason bees are small solitary bees that are common across Europe, but females prefer to mate locally. Male bees…

Did Our Hands Evolve to Throw Punches? One Biologist Thinks So

The human hand is a marvelous evolutionary invention: it can tie knots, tap out blog posts, wield tools and wire circuit boards. But how did we get these hands, with their long, dextrous fingers and conveniently opposable thumbs? It’s likely that tool-grasping played a role, but according to one evolutionary biologist, so did whacking your…

Menstruation: The Aftermath of an All-Natural But Ruthless Embryo Screening

Most animals don’t menstruate. If they don’t use their uterine lining, they simply reabsorb it. Only bats, monkeys, and apes take the drastic and seemingly-wasteful step of pitching out the entire thing. And humans toss it out more often than any other animal. This Ted-Ed video outlines one hypothesis for why menstruation evolved–it’s the aftermath…

Why Species Can’t Interbreed With Each Other, Except When They Can 

Most people learn that a species is a group of living things that can interbreed. If two organisms don’t normally mate, or have sterile offspring if they do, they’re from different species. Except that like so many other things you learned in school, the reality is somewhat more… complicated. In this short video from Quanta…

The First Mathematical Theory on Why There Are So Many Fricking Men

Men, am I right? They’re everywhere. But why are there so many of them? Because strictly in terms of reproductive quantity, we don’t need as many as we have. Even early naturalists realized there were way too many men in the human race—far more men than the species needs for maximum efficiency. Not sure why?…

Newly-Discovered, Ancient Humans Were Tree-Climbers Who Walked and Used Tools

Last month in South Africa, scientists announced the discovery of a new group of early humans called Homo naledi. Now an analysis shows that this hominin had hands capable of both tree climbing and tool use, plus feet that were adapted for walking upright. The remains of the extinct hominin were discovered in the Dinaledi…

Developmental biologists noticed back in the 1990s that a lot of the genes that make a penis are the same as the ones that make limbs. They’ve been finding new similarities ever since. Ed Yong, writing at his occasionally penis-obsessed blog Not Exactly Rocket Science, explains how legless, but not penis-less snakes have just showed…

Sexual Attraction Varies from Person to Person More Than We Realized

People who use dating app Tinder judge possible hookups just by looking at faces, making instant decisions based on attractiveness. But apparently those decisions aren’t based on some evolutionary instinct — they come from personal experiences. Our ability to recognize human faces seems to be baked into our genetic code. But our perception of beauty?…

There May Be an Evolutionary Reason for Masturbation, After All

Most people think of masturbation as a poor substitute for sex. The question is, why is it a substitute for sex? For most species, it doesn’t seem to achieve any kind of evolutionary purpose. Or does it? Historically, masturbation was considered sinful because it did not—it could not—produce any offspring. That’s not a socially progressive…

This Courting Bird Has More Dance Moves Than John Travolta

When they’re courting, male Carola’s Parotia put on one hell of a show. Whenever this bird-of-paradise from New Guinea gets females to visit his painstakingly-prepared display court, he runs through six specific dance moves, each of which has to be performed well, and in the right order, to convince a female he’s a worthy mate.…

Biologists Say Breeding Better Soil Microbes Can Help Grow Bigger Plants

It may be possible to grow better, healthier crops with just a syringe and some careful observation. That’s all you need to breed better soil microbes, which can have a big effect on how well plants grow, according to new research. Biologists Ulrich Mueller of the Univeristy of Texas and Joel Sachs of the University…

Viruses are Alive, and They Share An Ancestor With Modern Cells

Viruses are living things after all, and they share an early evolutionary history with the cells that make up the bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals we know today. That’s according to new research on the evolutionary history of viruses and cells, published in the journal Science Advances. To learn more about how viruses might be…

Your Jaw Is Basically a Fish Gill (Plus Millions of Years of Evolution)

As you sit at your desk and chew your morning muffin, consider the complicated interlocking structure of your jaw. How did you manage to evolve such a thing? What you’re eating through is essentially a badly deformed but useful gill, and we’ll tell you how it got to be that way. Worm World The world…

This Is the Earliest Known Creature Capable of Walking Upright on All Four Legs

Behold Bunostegos akokanensis, an ancient “pre-reptile” that lived during the Permian era some 260 million years ago. Researchers studying its fossilized remains have concluded that it stood upright on all fours, making it the earliest known creature to do so. Pareiasaurs, an ancient group of parareptiles to which Bunostegos belonged, were large herbivores that flourished…

You Can Print Your Own Homo Naledi Specimens

If you’re excited about last week’s announcement of a new human-like species discovered in South Africa, you can get your hands on the specimens — sort of. You can print your own 3D replicas of Homo naledi and several other important hominin finds. Anthropologist Lee Berger and his colleagues found 91 specimens, which they say…