Evolutionary Biology

Our heavy-browed cousin remains the most fascinating member of the human family

This 2007 photograph of a fire ant brandishing her stinger is among the most heavily circulated images from my collection. Since several people have asked how I managed to coax the animal into such a dramatic pose, I bring you the following recipe.

To a human, two billion years is an unfathomable interval. But that, a team of European, Gabonese, and American scientists now say, is how long ago a recently discovered hoard of fossils suggests Earth’s first big life evolved — large enough to see with the naked eye, and in a spectrum of forms that tease [...]

The Mongolian leader left a strong footprint in the Y chromosomes of his modern descendants, but he was not the only one

The ease with which certain sounds are produced in different climes plays a role in the development of spoken languages. Christopher Intagliata reports

The four oldest-known snake fossils were announced Tuesday, the most ancient of which was a roughly 25-cm-long reptile unearthed in a quarry near Oxford, England, that lived about 167 million years ago

Last summer, researchers demonstrated that non-invasive imaging combined with a staining technique enables the fast comparison and study of earthworm species and other animals in unprecedented detail.

The cone snail's venom contains not only neurotoxins, but insulin, too—which stuns the fish it preys on. Christopher Intagliata reports

A design flaw in the carnivorous plant could be its greatest asset

Scientists find translucent fish in a wedge of water hidden under 740 meters of ice, 850 kilometers from sunlight

Strains of the lab workhorse roundworm C. elegans that lived longer added more time being frail and had the same portion of their lives being healthy as normal worms. The work has implications for life-extension ideas such as caloric restriction. Dina Fine Maron reports

 

Here's a very brief article to a group of frogs. It's a slightly modified version of an article that initially appeared on Tet Zoo ver 2 during November 2007.