Tag: evolution
Why are whales big, but not bigger?
Matthew Savoca, Stanford University; Jeremy Goldbogen, Stanford University, and Nicholas Pyenson, Smithsonian Institution
Both toothed and baleen (filter-feeding) whales are among the largest animals ever...
Why we love big, blood-curdling screams
Frank T. McAndrew, Knox College
Of all the sounds humans produce, nothing captures our attention quite like a good scream.
They’re a regular feature of horror...
Not all genes are necessary for survival – these species dropped...
Jessica M. Velez, University of Tennessee; Alison Gerken, Kansas State University, and Amey Redkar, Universidad de Córdoba
Humans, the latest tally suggests, have approximately 21,000...
Fast evolution explains the tiny stature of extinct ‘Hobbit’ from Flores...
José Alexandre Felizola Diniz-Filho, Universidade Federal de Goias and Pasquale Raia, University of Naples Federico II
It’s not every day that scientists discover a new...
Climate change created today’s large crocodiles
Pedro L. Godoy, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
What does the term crocodylian bring to mind? A big reptile with a...
Evolution doesn’t proceed in a straight line – so why draw...
Quentin Wheeler, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Antonio G. Valdecasas, CSIC - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and...
Shark Week looms, but don’t panic
Gavin Naylor, University of Florida
Sharks elicit outsized fear, even though the risk of a shark bite is infinitesimally small. As a marine biologist and...
I’m an evolutionary biologist – here’s why this ancient fungal fossil...
Antonis Rokas, Vanderbilt University
Biologists don’t call them “the hidden kingdom” for nothing. With an estimated 5 million species, only a mere 100,000 fungi are...
EXPLORING NATURE
Oldest known cremation in Africa poses 9,500-year-old mystery about Stone Age...
Jessica C. Thompson, Yale University; Elizabeth Sawchuk, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York), and Jessica Cerezo-Román, University of Oklahoma
