Evolution

Gigantic Neanderthal noses are an evolutionary mystery

Neanderthals may have been our closest evolutionary ancestors, but they had at least one feature that alway set them apart from early humans: their incredibly large noses. But just why Neanderthals had such huge noses is an enduring evolutionary mystery. Neanderthals lived during some of the most extreme climatic conditions in recent history, as they…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 17

Google may soon be networking its computers using fly brains

One of hardest things about creating vast networks of devices is getting them all to communicate effectively. It turns out that fly brains may hold the solution. Fruit flies have a highly efficient nervous system. To process the data coming in from thousands of tiny sensory hairs that provide their view of the outside world,…

io9 Tim Barribeau Jan 14

Rare shark-like fish reveals evolutionary quirk

The elephant fish is an unusual shark relative that lives in the waters around Australia and New Zealand. Divers recently brought back rare examples of its embryos, which reveal the shocking evolutionary similarities between elephant fish gills and human hands. The embryos revealed which genes governed the formation of the fish’s skeletal gill covers, and…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 10

A simple model could explain how the first cell came into being

How did a bunch of lifeless molecules transform themselves into living cells, turning the ancient, dead Earth into a planet teeming with life? It’s an incredibly difficult question to answer, but a new model might explain part of the story. Before you can have life, complex organic molecules have to start replicating themselves in much…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 10

Why the coming decade marks a new stage in human evolution

On New Year’s Day, the giant population bump known as the baby boom started turning 65. By the decade’s end, more humans will be over 65 than under 5. Homo sapiens is entering uncharted territory. What will happen? Over at the health research site Tracker, there’s a terrific roundup of news and research about what…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jan 10

Did we evolve to jog?

One theory holds that human beings evolved by running. But humans are slower than either predator or prey animals. What gives? Human being are vulnerable to cold and heat, have fragile tearable skin without the protection of thick coats, offspring that are difficult to birth and take forever to raise, and brains that suck down…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 6

Long dead Jamaican ibis used its wings to club each other senseless

Xenicibis xympithecus is an extinct flightless ibis from Jamaica that had an incredibly rare adaptation — it used its wings as clubs. Unlike most flightless birds whose wings turned to vestigial and useless stumps, the Jamaican flightless ibis retained extremely long wing bones, but they adapted into use for attack. The wing had a long,…

io9 Tim Barribeau Jan 5

Did humans leave the trees because we’re a bunch of big babies?

Human babies are, relative to the size of their mothers, about twice as big as chimpanzee babies. Our evolutionary growth spurt might have forced mothers to give up living in the trees, changing human social dynamics forever. Human babies are very different from most animal infants. When we’re born, we’re completely helpless, and it’s several…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 3

The evolutionary basis for morality might be completely disgusting

Most humans are grossed out by things like oozing sores or rotten meat, and there might well be an evolutionary basis for staying away from these harmful things. But it might go deeper: that disgust might have created our morality. Valerie Curtis, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, argues that…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jan 3

Fossilized brains could reveal how birds first took flight a hundred million years ago

We know that birds evolved from dinosaurs around 150 million years ago, but we still don’t know how birds first gained the ability to fly. But a part of the bird brain that controls flight could solve this evolutionary riddle. Towards the rear of birds’ brains is the flocculus, a substructure of the cerebellum that…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 30

Are current humans the best there will be, or the worst that ever was?

There is evidence to suggest that athletes are both better reaching the limits of human ability — but there’s also evidence that current humans are woefully and irreparably less fit than their ancestors. Which is it? The modern world yields many benefits to its human inhabitants. Efficiently cultivated farm land, wonderful transportation systems, and a…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 30

400,000 year old teeth could rewrite the evolutionary history of our species

Eight recently discovered teeth are very similar to those of modern humans and date back 400,000 years… 200,000 years older than our species is supposed to be. To explain this mystery, we must retrace human evolution. The Teeth in the Cave The finding sparks a major mystery in the story of human evolution. All previous…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 28

The size of your amygdala might determine the quality of your social life

The amygdala is a brain structure crucial for regulating emotions. But the size of the amygdala also reveals just how rich and varied a social life a person leads. The bigger your amygdala is, the bigger your social network. This new research follows up on previous studies that had demonstrated a similar link between amygdala…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 26

What is the evolutionary purpose of tickling?

You probably know that you can’t tickle yourself. And although you might be able to tickle a total stranger, your brain also strongly discourages you from doing something so socially awkward. These facts offer insight into tickling’s evolutionary purpose. According to Robert R. Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the…

io9 Natalie Wolchover -- Popular Science Dec 26

DNA testing proves that Africa has two distinct species of elephant

At one point, forest elephants in Africa were thought to be the same species as savanna elephants. Genetic testing now shows that these two kinds of elephants are more different than scientists could’ve ever imagined. Since 2001, researchers suspected that Africa had more than one species of elephant. The average forest elephant was a meter…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 25

If you go back in time, don’t fear the giant sea scorpions

The world is losing monsters left and right. First the T-Rex went vegetarian and turned into a bird, and now it looks like giant, ancient sea scorpions might have eaten only greens as well. https://gizmodo.com/the-most-terrifying-meat-eating-dinosaurs-suddenly-went-5715384 Up until recently, it was thought that every time a person ordered lobster off a menu at a seafood restaurant,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 23

Another humanoid species co-existed with early humans and Neanderthals

A single finger bone found in this Siberian cave led to an amazing discovery. Early humans and Neanderthals co-existed with another humanoid species called Denisovans. And many present-day humans carry genes that prove our ancestors had children with Denisovans, too. The new species is named after the cave where the 30,000 year-old finger bone was…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 22

An evolutionary biologist explains the one thing most people misunderstand about evolution

At the opening of the American Museum of Natural History’s Brain exhibition, we caught up with curator Rob DeSalle and asked him about evolution. First he told us what an evolutionary biologist does. In DeSalle’s case, he uses computers to compare really long genome sequences and figure out where evolutionary change has occurred over time.…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 21

Did mammoths die out because of breastfeeding?

Woolly mammoths were breastfed for far, far longer than any of their modern counterparts, sometimes going three years before eating solid food. This ancient parenting choice might ultimately have driven mammoths to extinction. Researchers examined the teeth from baby and adult mammoths who once lived in Old Crow, Yukon. They discovered that mammoths didn’t start…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 21

Murder scene might reveal why Neanderthals went extinct

49,000 years ago in a cave in northern Spain, twelve Neanderthals were murdered and eaten by another group of Neanderthals. This grisly scene may tell a larger story about the reasons why our humanoid cousins ultimately died out. There are a bunch of competing theories as to why Neanderthals went extinct. One idea is that…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 20

Gigantic Neanderthal noses are an evolutionary mystery

Google may soon be networking its computers using fly brains

Rare shark-like fish reveals evolutionary quirk

A simple model could explain how the first cell came into being

Why the coming decade marks a new stage in human evolution

Did we evolve to jog?

Long dead Jamaican ibis used its wings to club each other senseless

Did humans leave the trees because we’re a bunch of big babies?

The evolutionary basis for morality might be completely disgusting

Fossilized brains could reveal how birds first took flight a hundred million years ago

Are current humans the best there will be, or the worst that ever was?

400,000 year old teeth could rewrite the evolutionary history of our species

The size of your amygdala might determine the quality of your social life

What is the evolutionary purpose of tickling?

DNA testing proves that Africa has two distinct species of elephant

If you go back in time, don’t fear the giant sea scorpions

Another humanoid species co-existed with early humans and Neanderthals

An evolutionary biologist explains the one thing most people misunderstand about evolution

Did mammoths die out because of breastfeeding?

Murder scene might reveal why Neanderthals went extinct

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