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NEWS ABOUT: evolution

Hump-Backed Feathered Dino Discovered

Mystery dinosaur offers link to first birds

(Newser) - It had a mysterious hump over its pelvis and feather-attachment bumps on its forearms: Meet the newly discovered Concavenator corcovatus, a dinosaur scientists hope will offer clues about the emergence of the first birds. Paleontologists unearthed the dino, a member of the theropod family, in central Spain. And while its... More »

Darwin's 'Survival of the Fittest' Disputed

Living space, not competition, spurs evolution: study

(Newser) - Room for expansion, not survival of the fittest, is the driving force behind evolution, according to a new study. The researchers—who say their findings cast doubt on one of the cornerstones of Charles Darwin's theories—studied evolutionary patterns over 400 million years and determined that biodiversity soared not when... More »

Ape With a Knife Changes Human History

Carved bones found in Africa show Stone Age began a million years earlier

(Newser) - It turns out that human ape Australopithecus afarensis Lucy likely used some kind of stone knife to eat meat 800,000 years earlier than previously thought, which has suddenly cast human history in a new light. The discovery of fossil animal bones showing evidence of being butchered 3.4 million... More »

Meat Made Us Smarter

...and learning how to cook it made us human

(Newser) - Sorry, vegetarians: Humans have meat to thank for the evolutionary changes that made us the large-brained tool-users we are today. Some 2.3 million years ago, our ancestors made the jump from gnawing all day on leaves and nuts to scavenging carcasses. This, anthropologists say, was the magic moment when... More »

Pets Helped Humans Evolve

Interspecies connection is 'very deep and very old'

(Newser) - The connection between humans and domesticated animals goes back millions of years and may have helped humans develop tools and even language, researchers say. The interspecies connection—nearly unique to humans and their pets and livestock—"connects the other big evolutionary leaps, including stone tools, language and domestication,"... More »

Tibetans 'Fastest-Evolving People on Earth'

Mutations allow Tibetans to thrive at high altitude

(Newser) - The Tibetan people have evolved to suit their high-altitude home with astonishing speed, say researchers. Biologists who compared the genomes of Tibetans living in villages up to 3 miles above sea level with Han Chinese found that 30 genes had undergone adaptive mutations in the 3,000 years since lowland... More »

Ugly Fish Have Stronger Sperm

Pretty boys get the girl first and still finish last

(Newser) - Pretty, colorful guppy guys may get all the ladies, but ugly guppies have “better sperm,” researchers concluded in a recent study. The group watched tropical guppies, and concluded that the colorful men had to “invest” in their beauty at the expense of slowing down their sperm. That's... More »

Ad Attacks Ala. Candidate for Belief in Evolution

I believe every single word of Bible, Byrne protests

(Newser) - A candidate for Alabama governor is fighting back against an ad that accuses him of supporting evolution and believing the Bible is "only partially true." Bradley Byrne says the ad is filled with "despicable lies:" "As a Christian and as a public servant, I have... More »

Chimps Shake Heads 'No'

Scientists spot decidedly familiar gesture

(Newser) - Saying “no” by shaking our heads back and forth may just be a habit we inherited from our evolutionary precursors. Researchers have filmed Bonobo chimps at the Leipzig Zoo shaking their heads in much the same way, the BBC reports. In one film, for example, a mother shakes her... More »

Scientists Uncover Human-Like Species

Boys find fossilized skeleton in South Africa

(Newser) - A paleoanthropologist, his 9-year-old son, and his dog have uncovered a fossil that's generating a lot of "missing link" headlines. (Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post explains why those headlines are wrong here .) The boy was playing on a hill in South Africa, near where his father was... More »

Why Men Get Sicker Than Women

Men 'live fast, die young,' so immunity is traded for sex drive

(Newser) - The phenomenon euphemistically referred to as “man flu”—the notion that men get sicker and sick more often than women—is real, researchers say. British doctors swear the theory is upheld by sophisticated computer models: The male immune system is underdeveloped compared to the female because men are... More »

Amphibious Caterpillars Can Live Underwater for Weeks

Creature may breathe through bodily pores

(Newser) - Researchers in Hawaii have discovered several species of caterpillars that live underwater for weeks at at time. What's more remarkable is that insects don't have gills—or hold their breath. Other amphibious creatures that survive under water store oxygen in their lungs. These guys don't. "I couldn't believe it,... More »

Stressed Men Go for Novelty in Sex Partners

Men suddenly choose women who don't look like them

(Newser) - Men who are under stress choose different women as sex partners than they do under normal circumstances, a new study shows. Men tend to be attracted to women whose facial features are like their own, but if stress is added to the equation, they flip to females who don’t... More »

Fearless Gambler? Could Be Brain Damage

Harm to amygdala seems to impair 'loss aversion'

(Newser) - People with damage to their amygdala, a deep part of the brain that governs basic value judgments, are more likely than others to take big risks for uncertain payoffs. A new study pitted 2 women with amygdala-specific lesions against 6 controls in tests of their willingness to gamble. The control... More »

Barefoot Runners Are More Efficient

Harvard study echoes popular trend to ditch the running shoes

(Newser) - The barefoot running trend now has a powerful academic ally in a Harvard study that sides with au naturel hoofers. Researchers compared people who had always run barefoot, those who had always worn shoes, and those who had given up footwear. The barefoot runners had a lighter stride, and used... More »

Creation Has Potential, Doesn't Evolve

Critics agree Paul Bettany shines, but premise falls mostly flat

(Newser) - Critics agree that on paper, Creation has a lot going for it. But they don't think the flick delivers the thrill of Charles Darwin's groundbreaking work:
  • "Director Jon Amiel has reduced a crucial moment in science to a Lifetime weepie about a workaholic who needs personal tragedy to wake
... More »

Sperm Shows a New Trait: Teamwork

It works together to keep rival male's sperm out of the picture

(Newser) - The sperm’s pursuit of the egg is not the free-for-all we might think it is, but rather a test of teamwork—at least in deer mice. The female of the species tends to have multiple partners, and a new study shows that sperm from one male tend to cooperate... More »

Neanderthals Wore Makeup, Jewelry

Find suggests they were just as advanced as early humans

(Newser) - Our Neanderthal cousins apparently picked their knuckles off the ground long enough to dabble in makeup and baubles, leading researchers to suggest they were no less intelligent than our direct ancestors at the same time in history. Newly unearthed evidence of 50,000-year-old jewelry and even makeup in a cave... More »

Pregnancy Boosts Awareness of Bad Vibes

Researchers say finding fits with protective evolutionary adaptation

(Newser) - Women get wiser to the emotional states of upset and angry people around them as their pregnancies progress, perhaps as a way for mothers-to-be to recognize threats. A study asked women to identify the emotions of people in a set of photographs in their first trimester and again near the... More »

Birdfeeding Changes Evolution

Free lunch rocks birds' futures

(Newser) - Darwin never made allowances for birdfeeders, but modern-day scientists have discovered that giving feathered friends a helping hand can have profound evolutionary consequences. Filling up birdfeeders with seeds and suet can convince birds to hang around for the free lunch, rather than take off of their migratory routes, researchers have... More »

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