Evolution

Why Were Dinosaurs So Much Bigger Than Animals Today?

Not every dinosaur was gigantic, but the ones that were were absolute behemoths. So, why did they get so much bigger than animals that walk the land today? Image: The sizes of some of Mongolia’s common dinosaurs in comparison to a person, including the adorably petite Velociraptor. / Conty Matthew Carrano, the curator for the…

io9 Ria Misra Apr 25

An Alternate History Of The Creationist Movement

How would the creationism-evolution controversy have been different if World War I had never happened? That’s the premise for a series of intriguing short articles posted at the website of the National Center for Science Education. The NCSE—inspired by the centennial of the outbreak of World War I in 1914—has invited several guest scholars to…

io9 Mark Strauss Apr 25

Why Do We Socialize? The Evolutionary Truth May Disgust You.

Though there are many social animals who live in groups, or protect their growing children, we still aren’t sure how social behavior really began. Now we may have a clue — and it comes from observing the way a humble earwig shares food with its brothers and sisters. Photo via Mathias Kölliker What is it…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 22

These Are The World’s Weirdest Birds

There are almost 10,000 bird species flying the skies, roaming the lands, and diving the waters of our planet. Some of them are pretty similar to one another, perhaps because the two species diverged only relatively recently. But some of them are so unique you won’t believe they’re not made up. The species listed below…

Biology Jason G. Goldman Apr 22

How Humans Evolved to Cope with City Crowds

For over a hundred thousand years, humans evolved in small, roving bands of a few dozen people. But then, about ten thousand years ago, we started living in cities that were far bigger than any tribe or band. Our minds had to change to cope with the population overload. Top photo via Zbynek Jirousek/Shutterstock It’s…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 21

Your Penis Is Getting in the Way of My Science

Earlier today, scientists announced they’d discovered an insect with a new kind of female sex organ. It looks a bit like a penis, and is called a gynosome. But almost every news outlet covered the story by describing the insects as “females with penises.” This isn’t just painfully wrong — it’s bad for science. Photo…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 17

Men Without Beards Could Soon Have An Evolutionary Advantage

Hipsters take note: Beards may be all the rage — and they might be making you more attractive for now — but this is a fashion trend that could ultimately be the cause of its own undoing. Top image: Greg Anderson via Peta Pixel. A recent experiment by Zinnia Janif, Rob Brooks, and Barnaby Dixson…

io9 George Dvorsky Apr 16

These Sweet 3D Fitness Landscapes Show Evolution At Work

Fitness landscapes are an effective way of showing how well organisms are doing at reproducing. Traditionally, however, these models are static snapshots of processes that often take millennia to unfold. Now, computational biologists have created a video that visualizes these adaptive landscapes over time. Evolutionary biologist Sewall Wright came up with the idea of fitness…

io9 George Dvorsky Apr 15

How Does Human Culture Influence Our Genetics?

The way our ancestors ate, cooked, explored, and interacted with others has had a profound influence on our genetic inheritance. So how will modern culture shape the genetic legacies we leave to our descendents? You shouldn’t be able to drink milk. Your ancestors couldn’t. It is only in the last 9,000 years that human adults…

Biology Jason G. Goldman Apr 14

Oklahoma Biology Teachers Don’t Understand Evolution

Much of the debate about evolution in public schools concerns the content of textbooks. But a new study points to another worrisome trend: teachers who have misconceptions about evolution might be passing those ideas along to their students. Researchers surveyed Oklahoma high school biology teachers, and found that 23 percent of them misunderstand several key…

io9 Mark Strauss Apr 11

How Do Red And Giant Pandas Coexist? The Secret Is In Their Skulls.

Red pandas and giant pandas have more in common than simply being equally adorable and included on the IUCN Red List. They both eat bamboo and live in the same habitats. How do they coexist without competing over the same resources? The secret might be hidden in their skulls. Despite their English language labels, red…

Biology Jason G. Goldman Apr 10

Creationists Invited To Give Commencement Speech At Montana Tech

A group of students and faculty at Montana Tech are organizing an unprecedented graduation boycott to protest the university’s decision to invite two commencement speakers who are prominent supporters of a young earth creationist museum. Montana power couple Greg and Susan Gianforte are engineers who have founded several tech companies and made donations to computer…

io9 Mark Strauss Apr 7

What Connects Sherlock Holmes and Intelligent Design?

“Sherlock Homes and Intelligent Design” is the title of an actual article published in the September 2012 edition of The Quarterly Review of Biology. It traces how the two sides of the Intelligent Design/Evolution debate each invoke Sherlock Holmes in a proxy war over reason. When he was doing research on Holmes for an unrelated…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta Apr 6

How Our Early Ancestors Spread Far and Wide, Mapped

Over six million years ago, we split off from our common ancestor with chimps. But, recently, scientists have been finding fossils all over the planet that show that hominins diversified into a wide range of species away from their native Africa. New Scientist has a wonderful feature about the research called The Lost Humans That…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Apr 4

Famed Primatologist Jane Goodall on Science and Religion

Today is Jane Goodall’s 80th birthday. To celebrate, Brain Picking’s Maria Popova has assembled a poignant and thoughtful tribute to the legendary primatologist, featuring Goodall’s reflections on science, religion and human responsibility. An excerpt from Goodall’s reflections: With language we can ask, as can no other living beings, those questions about who we are and…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Apr 3

Why Does It Matter If Homo sapiens Had Sex With Neanderthals?

Evidence has been piling up for a while that early humans in Europe had children with the Neanderthals who had been living there for probably 500 thousand years before humans arrived. Very few Neanderthal genes are left in humans today, so what difference does it make? A lot, both genetically and philosophically. First of all,…

io9 Annalee Newitz Apr 2

The Perfect Shoe Says A Lot About Humanity’s Imperfect Evolution

Hitoshi Mimura is regarded as one of the best shoe designers on Earth. Formerly of Asics, “the god of shoes” went solo some years back, and began crafting custom footwear for world-class athletes on a consultation basis. Mimura, and his shoes, are legendary. So what’s his secret? Photo via Hi. In a word: metrics. In…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 21

An Oklahoma Fox Station “Accidentally” Cut Evolution Out of Cosmos

The Cosmos reboot was fairly generous as far as leaving room for religious interpretation goes. But apparently, one Fox affiliate station in Oklahoma City decided there was still just a little too much science talk for their liking, so they cut out the 15-second mention of evolution. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the show’s host, doesn’t mention…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg Mar 13

Why do rotten foods taste so awful?

Biting into a rotten piece of fruit or meat is a thoroughly unpleasant experience. According to a 40-year-old theory, it’s because microbes have evolved to taste disgusting as a way to fend off competitors — namely you. But proving this theory has been difficult, until now. Back in 1977, ecologist Daniel Janzen proposed the idea…

io9 George Dvorsky Mar 12

Why Elephants Can Recognize Human Voices

Perhaps elephants are known for their memory because their very survival in our human-dominated world depends on it. This may be why elephants can recognize individual people by our voices. Humans are the most significant threat to elephants after lions, but not all humans pose the same threats. New research published today in Proceedings of…

Biology Jason G. Goldman Mar 10

Why Were Dinosaurs So Much Bigger Than Animals Today?

An Alternate History Of The Creationist Movement