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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: evolution

evolution stories: 85 news summaries

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Scientists Spot 6 Giraffe Species

And some are in trouble

Dec 24, 07 3:40 AM CST
(Newser) - Giraffes had long been thought to be one species with several subspecies, but researchers now believe they have identified six distinct species—some of which are on the brink of extinction, reports the BBC. Only 160 Nigerian giraffes remain. But there's hope the researchers' find will spur greater conservation efforts. More »

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evolution • wildlife • nature • giraffes • zoology

Earliest Whale Ancestor a Deer?

Cat-sized animal, Indohyus, lived 48 million years ago

Dec 20, 07 1:50 PM CST
(Newser) - Quick: What's the the whale's earliest-known ancestor? Wrong. It may not have been Bambi, but it was a deer about the size of a domestic cat, the Guardian reports. Fossil hunters have named the small deer-like animal that waded in lagoons and munched on vegetation Indohyus. It lived 48 million... More »

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evolution • whale • Indohyus

Nature's Back-Up Plan Keeps Pregnant Women Upright

Evolutionary changes help fight gravity

Dec 12, 07 8:03 PM CST
(Newser) - Scientists have found slight differences in the lower back and hip joints of men and women—results of evolution—that help women keep their balance and avoid serious back pain while pregnant, the AP reports. “(Women) are experiencing a pretty impressive challenge. Evolution has tinkered ... to the point where... More »

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evolution • pregnancy • Nature

Humans Evolving
at Warp Speed

New research contradicts theory that easier life slowed development

Dec 11, 07 3:59 AM CST
(Newser) - The pace of human evolution switched to the fast track when people began forming agrarian societies 10,000 years ago, researchers have discovered. Scientists had theorized that evolution would slow as challenges to survival waned, but the opposite appears to be the case with changes occurring surprisingly quickly, the Los ... More »

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evolution • milk • disease • malaria • genetic mutation • genes • population • human evolution

 Altruism Linked to Gene

People with active AVPR1a gene more likely to give away money in study

Dec 9, 07 6:35 AM CST
(Newser) - Researchers have identified a gene that may influence altruism, reports the BBC. Test subjects who had the choice of keeping money or giving it away were 50% more likely to give it away if they had a more active version of the gene AVPR1a. The gene is linked to arginine... More »

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evolution • altruism • generosity • vasopressin

Religion Remains Flashpoint With Huckabee

GOP candidate sounds off on creationism in schools, Romney's Mormon faith

Dec 5, 07 10:40 PM CST
(Newser) - A month before the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reacted with frustration when asked if creationism should be taught in public schools, the AP reports. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who has said he does not believe in Darwin's theory of evolution, said his personal views on religion... More »

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education • evolution • Iowa • presidential campaign • GOP • religion • creationism • Mike Huckabee • presidential politics • human evolution • campaign trail • Iowa caucus • public schools

Creation Geologists Rock World

They're well-credentialed and unafraid of data

Nov 25, 07 7:10 AM CST
(Newser) - Today's creationist geologists are not who the secular may think. Numerous and thriving, many hold advanced degrees from top universities, and are making evangelicals more open to scientific evidence. And they are experts for the nearly half of Americans who believe God created the Earth in the last 10,000... More »

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evolution • Christianity • creationism • Noah's Ark • geology • flood • fossil • Bible • Christian right • evangelicals • young earth

To Be, or Not: That Is the Question for Irregular Verbs

Study shows language evolves à la Darwin, less-used forms die off

Oct 11, 07 10:44 AM CDT
(Newser) - Irregular verbs, much like the Kennewick Man, evolve. But, much like the woolly mammoth, sometimes they vanish altogether, and linguists and evolutionary theorists have teamed up to compute their extinction times—in terms of half-lives. The study, published this week in Nature, shows that irregular forms of lesser-used verbs... More »

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evolution • language • linguistics • Kennewick Man • irregular verbs • woolly mammoth

What's Baby Got That Chimps Don't?

Study pits toddlers against primates to see how human brains are different

Sep 7, 07 12:05 PM CDT
(Newser) - What makes humans smarter than their primate relatives? Into the ongoing debate comes a new study that concludes it's not just size, it's the particular kind of computing power. A study matching human toddlers with chimps and orangutans compared their performance on a battery of different kinds of tasks. The... More »

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evolution • intelligence • children • learning • baby • chimpanzees • apes

Lucy Debuts
in Houston

But dem bones ain't made for traveling,
say scientists

Aug 29, 07 5:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Lucy kicks off her public debut  at the Houston Museum of Natural Science tomorrow amid controversy that the world's favorite human ancestor should never have left her home in Ethiopia. The public wants the chance to the 3.2 million-year-old remains, but scientists say Lucy's too fragile to travel. More »

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evolution • Ethiopia • Houston • fossil • human evolution • Lucy

Women Have Been Falling for Brad Pitt Types for 2.6M Years

Rules of attraction haven't changed much

Aug 25, 07 10:42 AM CDT
(Newser) - The facial proportions of the average hot guy haven't changed much throughout human  evolutionary history, finds a new study that compares contemporary human skulls with skulls from 2.6 million years ago. Women have been selecting for males with short, broad faces—think Brad Pitt and Will Smith—since the... More »

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gender • evolution • Brad Pitt • women • men • science • human evolution • biology • attraction

Kenyan Fossil Rattles Human
Family Tree

Skull suggests two precursors were actually concurrent

Aug 9, 07 8:15 AM CDT
(Newser) - Two of our ancestors apparently lived alongside each other in Africa rather than evolving from one to the next on the path to Homo sapiens, as scientists once believed. National Geographic reports that a Homo habilis skull dug up in Kenya is surprisingly young, making its 1.4 million-year-old owner... More »

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Africa • Kenya • evolution • archaeology • origins of humanity • fossil • human evolution • homo sapiens • hominids • anthropology • Homo habilis • Homo erectus

Macho Men Seen as Cheaters, Poor Dads

Beefcakes perceived as poor dad material more likely to cheat on spouses

Aug 8, 07 8:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Macho-looking men are perceived as poor parenting material and more likely to cheat on their mates, according to recent study on sex and masculinity. "When people look at masculine faces they see dominance, which is a good thing in evolution but less good in a long-term partner," said... More »

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evolution • parenting • women • men • parents • sex • sexuality

Frozen DNA
Survives After
8 Million Years

Microorganisms from Antarctica look
like Martian data

Aug 7, 07 9:15 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists have nixed the notion that glaciers are lifeless blocks of ice by thawing chunks containing Antarctic organisms and watching them successfully divide on their own, the Los Angeles Times reports. The study suggests that these microorganisms, ranging from 100,000 to 8 million years old, could yield DNA and... More »

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evolution • global warming • Mars • DNA • bacteria • Antarctica • glacier • microorganisms • life • gene Popsicle

Why Fat
is Phat

The body's most maligned cells are actually critically valuable players

Aug 7, 07 10:09 AM CDT
(Newser) - Fat is underappreciated, New York Times health columnist Natalie Angier writes: just because a lot of people now have too much of it doesn't mean it should be villified. The fat cell is in fact a marvel of science, a sophisticated mechanism finely tailored not only for energy storage but... More »

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obesity • evolution • health • fat • cells • body

Muslim Creationists Damn Darwin

Turkish anti-evolution tract
distributed worldwide

Aug 2, 07 6:31 PM CDT
(Newser) - A Muslim group in Turkey is widely disseminating a 768-page tome that slams evolution and promotes Islam-inflected creationism, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The Council of Europe has issued warnings—particularly to schools—against the "Atlas of Creation," which has been published in 80 countries and 59 languages. More »

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education • Islam • evolution • Turkey • creationism • Muslim • Charles Darwin • Council of Europe

The Mind Thinks More Than It Knows

Subconscious works behind the scenes of decisions, judgments

Jul 31, 07 3:46 PM CDT
(Newser) - After just handling a stranger’s coffee, people make subconscious judgments about personality, psychologists say. Asked to hold a lab assistant’s cup of hot or iced coffee, Yale students associated cold drinkers with selfish personalities, the Times reports. The experiment is part of a body of research that... More »

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evolution • Yale University • brain • psychology • subconscious • mind

Butterfly Evolves in Blink of Eye

Parasite forces hyper-speed adaptation in male blue moon butterflies

Jul 13, 07 8:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - One of the fastest evolutionary changes ever observed has been witnessed by scientists studying butterflies in the South Pacific, the BBC reports. Blue Moon butterflies managed to fight off a deadly parasitic bacteria by developing suppressor genes to fight the bacteria in just six years. Hard-hit males rebounded from 1%... More »

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evolution • science • nature • butterflies

The Cat Did Not Walk by Himself

Jun 29, 07 6:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - Unlike most animals who were domesticated by man, cats, you cat owners will not be surprised to learn, domesticated themselves.  A study published in Science concludes that some 12,000 years ago cats, attracted by mice, who were themselves attracted by grain which man had just figured out how... More »

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pets • evolution • domestication • cat • animal

Evolutionary Theory Takes Big Leap With Evo-Devo

Research in embryonic development  reveals how organisms evolve

Jun 26, 07 9:39 AM CDT
(Newser) - Evolutionary theory is in the early days of its third great expansion, the New York Times reports, following Darwin’s original formulation almost 150 years ago and the so-called “modern synthesis” of 1930-50. Dubbed “evo-devo” because it focuses on the embryonic development of organisms, the newest science explores... More »

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evolution • genetics • Evo devo • genes • Charles Darwin

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