Origin of Life News

November 7, 2016

'Cyclops' Beetles Inform 'Chicken-And-Egg' ...

How First Biomolecule Self-Replicated

The Vivid Colors of Birds

Chimps and Bonobos: Ancient Interbreeding

Latest Headlines

updated 5:02pm EST

New Evolutionary Finding: Species Take Different Genetic Paths to Reach Same Trait

Oct. 20, 2016 — Biologists have been contemplating evolutionary change since Charles Darwin first explained it. Using modern molecular tools ... read more

African Clawed Frog Genome Contains Two Full Sets of Chromosomes from 2 Two Extinct Ancestors

Oct. 19, 2016 — Millions of years ago, one species of frog diverged into two species. Millions of years later, the two frogs became one ... read more

Ancient Fish Illuminates One of the Mysteries of Childhood

Oct. 17, 2016 — Remember dropping your milk teeth? After a lot of wiggling the tooth finally dropped out. But in your hand was only the enamel-covered crown: the entire root of the tooth had ... read more

Mystery Species Hidden in Cave Art Appears to Be Unknown Bison-Cattle Hybrid

Oct. 18, 2016 — Ancient DNA research has revealed that Ice Age cave artists recorded a previously unknown hybrid species of bison and cattle ... read more

Ancient Hominid 'Hanky Panky' Also Influenced Spread of STIs

Oct. 17, 2016 — With recent studies proving that almost everyone has a little bit of Neanderthal DNA in them ---- up to 5 percent of the human genome --- it's become clear our ancestors not only had some serious ... read more

A Short Jump from Single-Celled Ancestors to Animals

Oct. 13, 2016 — The first animals evolved from their single-celled ancestors around 800 million years ago, but new evidence suggests that this leap to multi-celled organisms in the tree of ... read more

Drivers of Evolution Hidden in Plain Sight

Oct. 13, 2016 — The evolutionary history of thousands of protein modifications in 18 related species have now been reconstructed by a team of scientists. Their findings highlight a ... read more

This Little Amoeba Committed Grand Theft

Oct. 10, 2016 — About 100 million years ago, a lowly amoeba pulled off a stunning heist, grabbing genes from an unsuspecting bacterium to replace those it had lost. Now scientists have ... read more

Was the Secret Spice in Primal Gene Soup a Thickener?

Oct. 10, 2016 — A little goo will do to get RNA and DNA to progress toward self-replication. Could some abundant ingredient have helped the precursors of genes become life molecules? Another ... read more

How Gecko Feet Got Sticky

Oct. 7, 2016 — How do key innovations in the animal kingdom arise? To explore this question, evolutionary biologists studied Gonatodes, a genus of dwarf geckos. In the process, the ... read more

Israel Divers Find Ancient Marine Cargo in Mediterranean

It's Surprisingly Easy To Brew The Building Blocks Of Life In A Puddle

DNA Data Storage Could Last Thousands of Years

What the New Dinosaur Reveals About the T. Rex

Site of Radiocarbon Dating Discovery Named Historic Landmark

Oct. 6, 2016 — It was while working in the Kent Laboratory building in the 1940s that researchers developed radiocarbon dating—an innovative method to measure the age of organic materials. Scientists soon used ... read more

Today's Most Successful Fish Weren't Always Evolutionary Standouts

Oct. 5, 2016 — Take a glance around the oceans, rivers and lakes of today and you'll confront an astonishing diversity of fish, from narrow-bodied eels to the 25-foot-long giant oarfish to delicate, fluttering ... read more

How Evolution Has Equipped Our Hands With Five Fingers

Oct. 5, 2016 — Have you ever wondered why our hands have exactly five fingers? Scientists have uncovered a part of this mystery, and their remarkable discovery is outlined in a new ... read more

Environmental Change Drove Diversity in Lake Malawi Cichlids

Oct. 5, 2016 — Periods of deep, clear water in Lake Malawi over the past 800,000 years coincide with bursts of species diversification, researchers show in a new ... read more

Analysis of DNA from Early Settlers of the Pacific Overturns Leading Genetic Model

Oct. 3, 2016 — A scientific team analyzed DNA from people who lived in Tonga and Vanuatu between 2,500 and 3,100 years ago, and were among the first people to live in these islands. The results overturn the leading ... read more

Feral Chickens Spread Light on Evolution

Sep. 30, 2016 — Different genes are involved during the adaptation of a domestic animal to life in the wild than when a wild animal becomes domesticated, concludes a new study. The results increase our understanding ... read more

Evolution of a Species Also Involves the Bacteria It Carries

Sep. 29, 2016 — Animals live in close association with microorganisms, carrying beneficial bacteria while coping with pathogenic infections. Now, a study shows that symbiotic bacteria play a direct role in the ... read more

News from the Primordial World

Sep. 28, 2016 — A new study offers a twist on a popular theory for how life on Earth began about four billion years ago. The study questions the "RNA world" hypothesis, a theory for how RNA molecules ... read more

Ancient Eggshell Protein Breaks Through DNA Time Barrier

Sep. 27, 2016 — Scientists have identified fossil proteins in a 3.8 million year-old ostrich eggshell, suggesting that proteins could provide valuable new insights into the evolutionary tree, much further back in ... read more

Life in Ancient Oceans Enabled by Erosion from Land

Sep. 26, 2016 — As scientists continue finding evidence for life in the ocean more than 3 billion years ago, those ancient fossils pose a paradox that raises questions about whether there was more land mass than ... read more

Shape-Shifters Found in the Belt Supergroup: Revelations About Tappania Plana

Sep. 25, 2016 — The rise of eukaryotic organisms (organisms with complex cells, or a single cell with a complex structure) is still a mystery, but researchers have compelling evidence that Tappania plana may ... read more

In Bird Feathers, Scientists Find Hints About Color of Extinct Animals

Sep. 23, 2016 — In order to discover the true colors of ancient animals, scientists are using X-rays to closely examine the chemical details of modern bird feathers. The researchers were able to map elements that ... read more

Oxygen Levels Were Key to Early Animal Evolution, Strongest Evidence Now Shows

Sep. 23, 2016 — It has long puzzled scientists why, after 3 billion years of nothing more complex than algae, complex animals suddenly started to appear on Earth. Now, a team of researchers has put forward some of ... read more

Scientists Uncover Insights Into the Formation of Earth’s Oldest Continental Crust

Sep. 19, 2016 — Addressing fundamental unknowns about the earliest history of Earth's crust, scientists have precisely dated the world's oldest rock unit at 4.02 billion years old. The findings suggest ... read more

How Rattlesnakes Got, and Lost, Their Venom

Sep. 16, 2016 — Millions of years ago, the ancestor of modern rattlesnakes was endowed with a genetic arsenal of toxic weaponry. But in a relatively short period of evolutionary time, different types of snakes kept ... read more

Yes, Computing Genetic Ancestors Is Super Accurate

Sep. 15, 2016 — For decades, geneticists have used programs to compute back through tens of millions of years of mutations to ancestral genes. Are the algorithms really working? A novel lab physical benchmark says ... read more

Protein-Like Structures from the Primordial Soup

Sep. 12, 2016 — Experiments have shown that it is remarkably easy for protein-like, two-dimensional structures -- amyloids -- to form from basic building blocks. This discovery supports the researchers' ... read more

How Did the Modern Eukaryotic Cell Acquire Its Transport System?

Sep. 9, 2016 — Plant and animal cells have a complex traffic system within them. This transport network links cellular compartments much like the traffic network that connects different districts in an urban ... read more

Life Thrived on Young Earth: Scientists Discover 3.7-Billion-Year-Old Fossils

Aug. 31, 2016 — A team of Australian researchers has uncovered the world's oldest fossils in a remote area of Greenland, capturing the earliest history of the planet and demonstrating that life on Earth emerged ... read more

New Theory, Embryo Geometry, Proposes Explanation for How Vertebrates Evolved

Aug. 31, 2016 — A new theory aims to explain how the complex vertebrate body, with its skeleton, muscles, nervous and cardiovascular systems, arises from a single cell during development and how these systems ... read more

Thursday, October 6, 2016