Natural Selection

These Male Spiders Evolved a Post-Sex Catapult to Escape Cannibalistic Females

Researchers believe the trait is an adaptation to counter the females’ post-coital hunger.

Scientists Terrorized Lizards With a Leaf Blower to Study Natural Selection

I’m not sure if lizards can experience PTSD, but if they can, I have every reason to believe this science experiment induced it. New research released on Wednesday in Nature chronicled a bizarre experiment involving lizards from Turks and Caicos, a stick, and a leaf blower. The goal? To study how hurricanes influence natural selection, of…

Conservation Brian Kahn

These Hawaiian Stick Spiders Have a Profound Case of Evolutionary Déjà Vu

Environments make species. This was the fundamental biology lesson that was drilled into Charles Darwin when he visited the Galápagos Islands back in 1835, a trip that ultimately inspired his theory of natural selection. Nearly 200 years later, scientists in Hawaii have stumbled upon a fascinating evolutionary quirk that would’ve made Darwin proud—the discovery of…

Biology George Dvorsky

A Single Winter Storm Forced These Lizards to Start Evolving Practically Overnight

We typically think of evolution as an agonizingly gradual process, but there are occasions when nature compels species to move at a quicker pace. By studying a population of lizards both before and after a particularly severe cold snap, scientists have documented natural selection in fast motion, where the surviving reptiles—after just a single winter…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Evolution Will No Longer Be Taught in Turkish Schools

Claiming that evolution is “debatable, controversial, and too complicated for students,” Turkey’s board of education has decided to stop teaching Darwinian natural selection in its schools. The move has infuriated the country’s secular opposition, but it could embolden other countries to do the same. The Guardian reports that Turkey’s senior education official, Alpaslan Durmuş, says…

Tech News George Dvorsky

This Mutated Fish Can Now Withstand Absurd Levels of Toxic Waste

Researchers have discovered that Atlantic killifish are now 8,000 times more resilient to high levels of toxic waste than other fish, allowing them to survive extreme levels of pollution that would normally be deadly. It sounds like an evolutionary success story, but examples like this are exceptionally rare in the animal kingdom. New research published…

Tech News George Dvorsky

We Still Don’t Know Why the Heck There Are So Many Blue Tarantulas

A very particular shade of blue hair has evolved independently on eight separate occasions and in at least three different ways in tarantulas, a new study finds. And scientists are having a hell of a time figuring out why. Like most animals with a blue hue, tarantulas don’t get their color from pigments. Rather, that…

Tech News Maddie Stone

8 Scientific Discoveries That Prove Evolution is Real

When explaining human origins, a staggering 42% of all Americans still ascribe to a creationist interpretation—despite the fact that there’s plenty of evidence to support the theory of natural selection. Here are some of the most potent scientific discoveries that prove Darwin was right. Discovering DNA One of the more remarkable things about On the…

io9 George Dvorsky

The Mice In Florida Prove The Antievolutionists In Florida Wrong

Florida has been the scene of multiple controversies over whether creationism should be taught in schools. This is odd, as Florida is the scene of one of the oldest and most thoroughly-studied examples of natural selection. Florida isn’t the most anti-science state in the union, but it has been the scene of many battles over…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Animals Shaped the Evolution of Colorful Fruits

Fruits can get their colors from a lot of places. New research suggests that the color preferences of the animals that eat fruit are among the strongest influences on fruit color. It’s an assumption scientists have always made, but now they have some evidence to support it. It has long been thought that part of…

Biology Jason G. Goldman

Tibetans Got Their High-Altitude Gene From An Extinct Human Species

In what’s considered one of the finest examples of natural selection in action, Tibetans have acquired the ability to thrive at extremely high altitudes. Incredibly, researchers say the gene required for this adaptation was inherited from the now-extinct Denisovans. Tibetans can thrive at altitudes that would wreck most humans. Normally, exposure to altitudes exceeding 15,000…

io9 George Dvorsky

How Predictable Is Evolution?

Evolutionary biologists like to say that mutations are random but that selection is not; species are crafted by their environments. But if this is the case, why is it so hard to predict evolution? A recent genetic analysis of stick insects provides an important clue. At the heart of this issue a phenomenon known as…

io9 George Dvorsky

Hunting Lionfish Makes Them Harder To Hunt, Surprising Nobody

How many different ways are there to say that culling invasive or unwanted species is rarely the best solution to manage a disrupted ecosystem? It looks like we have to keep coming up with new ways of saying it, because our hunting behavior itself is driving invasive lionfish into hiding. Culling sharks is not going…

Biology Jason G. Goldman

We are not the boss of natural selection. It is unpwnable.

Last week, David Attenborough told The Guardian that humans “have put a halt to natural selection,” and with it our genetic and physical evolution. In this expertly crafted rebuttal, University of Rhode Island anthropologist Holly Dunsworth explains why he’s wrong. https://gizmodo.com/sir-david-attenborough-says-the-future-is-going-to-tota-1284214476 Top photo by Ricardo Moraes, via Reuters. It should come as no surprise that…

io9 Holly Dunsworth – The Mermaid's Tale

How the pseudoscience of Social Darwinism nearly destroyed humanity

Following the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1860, many political theorists and opportunistic politicians applied his findings to human society. In the 20th century, these ideas were put into practice — and it nearly destroyed us. Here’s why Social Darwinism was one of the worst ideas ever. Charles Darwin’s theory of…

io9 George Dvorsky

Sir David Attenborough says the future is going to totally suck

Speaking to Radio Times, he also said that China’s one child policy wasn’t a terrible idea, and that humanity has essentially stopped evolving. As the Guardian reports, Sir David Attenborough, the famous broadcaster and naturalist, is becoming increasingly outspoken. Earlier this year he described humans as a “plague on Earth.” Now he’s saying that humans…

io9 George Dvorsky

This is why scurvy is one of evolution’s greatest mysteries

Scurvy used to be the scourge of the navy, killing sailors on long voyages. Now it’s a blight to evolutionary biologists. They just don’t know why it exists in humans. After too many months at sea on rations of salt pork and hard tack and rum, sailors began to drop. First they’d break out in…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Did humans control natural selection of other species?

We think of natural selection as the kind of thing that happened long before people got involved. But one Soviet scientist believed that humans not only participated in a special kind of selection, but we ate better because of it. When a harmless snake develops colors to look like a venomous snake, predators are wary…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The Math Behind Cicadas’ Bizarre 17-Year Life Cycle

It makes sense that an animal might hid away in the ground while it’s maturing, but 17 years is a long, seemingly random amount of time. But it’s not like cicadas picked a number out of a hat and were stuck with it. There’s a something specific about that number, and numberphile is sussing it…

Tech News Eric Limer

Why “Survival of the Fittest” Is Wrong

You’ve probably heard it a million times in descriptions of evolution and natural selection. Charles Darwin even liked to say it. But the phrase “survival of the fittest” is wrong, and understanding why can help us better understand what it means to be human. Survival’s Origins Darwin uses the phrase “survival of the fittest” in…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Natural Selection

These Male Spiders Evolved a Post-Sex Catapult to Escape Cannibalistic Females

Scientists Terrorized Lizards With a Leaf Blower to Study Natural Selection

These Hawaiian Stick Spiders Have a Profound Case of Evolutionary Déjà Vu

A Single Winter Storm Forced These Lizards to Start Evolving Practically Overnight

Evolution Will No Longer Be Taught in Turkish Schools

This Mutated Fish Can Now Withstand Absurd Levels of Toxic Waste

We Still Don’t Know Why the Heck There Are So Many Blue Tarantulas

8 Scientific Discoveries That Prove Evolution is Real

The Mice In Florida Prove The Antievolutionists In Florida Wrong

Animals Shaped the Evolution of Colorful Fruits

Tibetans Got Their High-Altitude Gene From An Extinct Human Species

How Predictable Is Evolution?

Hunting Lionfish Makes Them Harder To Hunt, Surprising Nobody

We are not the boss of natural selection. It is unpwnable.

How the pseudoscience of Social Darwinism nearly destroyed humanity

Sir David Attenborough says the future is going to totally suck

This is why scurvy is one of evolution’s greatest mysteries

Did humans control natural selection of other species?

The Math Behind Cicadas’ Bizarre 17-Year Life Cycle

Why “Survival of the Fittest” Is Wrong

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