Many living vertebrates have the ability to detect electric fields, especially in other animals when hunting. But what can the fossil record tell us about the origins of this sensory system?
Tiktaalik: bridging the gap between land and sea.
Zina Deretsky/National Science Foundation
Rolf Quam, Binghamton University, State University of New York
New discoveries are changing archaeologists’ ideas about the origins of our own species and our migration out of Africa. This fossil pushes Homo sapiens’ African exodus date back by 50,000 years.
Male Birds of Paradise have patches of super-black plumage that absorb 99.95 percent of light. New research identified their feathers’ microscopic structures that make them look so very dark.
Nearly one of every four people in the US is religiously unaffiliated.
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Nearly one of every four people in the US is unaffiliated, which has prompted speculation that this would increase support for liberal policies. A scholar provides some lessons from history.
The story of where we come from evolves almost every year.
Shutterstock/Eugenio Marongiu
From mistletoebirds, to bush turkeys, to the festively plumaged eclectus parrot, Australian birds can more than hold their own when it comes to embracing the Christmas spirit.
Studies of twins let us see the contributions that genes, upbringing and culture make to behaviour.
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Evolution has shaped gender differences, but we don’t have to be bound to this history. We are not mindless automata, doomed to slavishly oblige our instincts and impulses.
The new Tasmanian tiger genome reveals some fascinating facts about this extinct marsupial, including why they were so similar to dogs, and how they were growing more vulnerable to genetic disease.
Eldery member of the Agta hunter-gatherer tribe in the Philippines.
Antonio Lazcano, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) was a courageous scholar whose remarkable work on the role of symbiosis in evolution stands as a magisterial contribution of science.
Flowers may take advantage of visual illusions to attract bees.
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