The Trap-Jaws’ Mighty Mandibles Propel Them from Danger

Medicine & Technology May 15, 2015

The mighty mandibles of the trap-jaw ants are legendary in the animal kingdom. Members of the genus Odontomachus have specialized spring-loaded jaws that can snap shut at speeds of 60 meters per second, with forces that exceed 300 times their body weight. But in four species, those powerful jaws are not only great at catching prey, they can also aid in the ant's escape.

Embryological Manipulation Reveals Chicks Can Have Prehistoric Looks

May 13, 2015

One of the latest breakthroughs from Yale scientists: the mighty dino-chicken. The Yale team used molecular manipulation to grow chicken embryos with Velociraptor snouts and published their results yesterday in the journal Evolution. The embryos did not hatch.

Attenborough, and the Evolution of Life, Continue to Intrigue

May 12, 2015

Anyone who knows paleontology, knows the older the sediment, the greater the potential for documenting the evolution of life on earth. I guess the same can be said of certain naturalists, namely David Attenborough, who has been exploring life on our planet for almost 90 years.

From Single Cells to Us—The Tale Of Evolution As It's Told At Deep-Sea Vents

May 07, 2015

In the search for the origins of life, scientists have found a striking new link between lone cells and complex creatures like humans. The connection comes from observing life under the harsh conditions that exist near volcanoes more than a mile below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Curious Case of Birds—How Evolution Has Led to Less Differences Than Charles Darwin Thought

Mar 28, 2015

It’s a well-known fact that in nature it’s often the boys that have the better looks. Without the task of investing their energy and resources into the next generation of children males are able to reallocate their resources into preening and looking pretty. But it’s a curious case that is far from what the original evolutionary biologists once thought.

Could Modified Yeast Biofuels Replace Gasoline

Mar 26, 2015

Modified Yeast Unlocks Biofuel Potential

Ancient Human Jaw Bone Evidence of Earlier Evolution

Mar 05, 2015

A fragment of a jawbone dating back 2.8 million years is evidence that humans evolved more than 400,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Life in The Cold—How Penguins Deal Without Sweet & Savory Sensations

Feb 17, 2015

What could be worse than living on a frozen tundra, you ask? Experiencing the world in only two tastes has got to be pretty rough. And when you’re noshing down on fish day in and day out, only being able to taste things that are salty or sour has got to be a bummer too. But sadly, this is the life of the penguin.

Was Darwin Wrong? Newly Discovered Sulfur Bacteria Remains Unevolved for 2 Billion Years

Feb 16, 2015

Theory of evolution not challenged by the longest lack of evolution discovered!

Think That Chicks Are Just Plain Cute? Well It Turns Out That They Have a Knack for Numbers Too

Jan 30, 2015

While it may take children a couple of years to learn the true values of arithmetic, a new study conducted by ethologist Dr Rosa Rugani, from the University of Padova, reveals that newborn chicks can not only recognize number patterns but also place them in ascending order from left to right. In fact, while the cognitive ability to count may seem like an acquired trait taught to us in school, Rugani’s recent experiments prove that even those with bird brains can display a knack for “number mapping”.

Ancient Man May Have Been More Tactile Than We Thought—Stone-Age Brains & Modern-Day Hands

Jan 23, 2015

Anthropologists now believe that some of the earliest human ancestors who lived 3.2 million years ago had hand structures much like our own and were able to grasp and use tools, even if they had not invented them yet.

Tools Could Be the Topic for First Ever Conversations

Jan 21, 2015

What were the first words uttered by the early ancestors of modern humans? According to a new study, one of the first possible sentences could have been, "Tool bad," and likely occurred between 2.5 and 1.8 million years ago.

1Kite Study Reveals Origins of Insects and Perhaps Our Origins Too

Nov 07, 2014

While bacteria win the award for largest species abundance, and Archaea take the award for oldest organisms known to man, the most abundant animal on the face of the Earth is still the formidable and diverse phyla arthropoda—which include all species of insects. They come in an array of shapes and sizes, and compose nearly 80 percent of all animal species identified by man to date, and there are still undoubtedly thousands of species we’ve yet to find. But researchers believe that the diverse little creepy crawly bunch may hold more secrets than they let on, perhaps even secrets about our very own evolutionary origins.