Early family ties: No sponge in the human family tree
Since the days of Charles Darwin, researchers are interested in reconstructing the "Tree of Life", and in understanding the development of animal and plant species during their evolutionary history. In...
View ArticleButterflies: 'Twice-punished' by habitat fragmentation and climate change
New findings by Virginie Stevens (CNRS), Jean Clobert (CNRS), Michel Baguette (Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle) and colleagues show that interactions between dispersal and life-histories are...
View ArticleForensic speciation: Splicing genetic and phylogenic trees of life
(Phys.org)—The Tree of Life is a beautiful and elegant metaphor that has proven deceptively difficult to reconstruct. The main culprit may be the overwhelming reliance on so-called concatenation...
View ArticleNew study sheds light on how and when vision evolved
The study, which used computer modelling to provide a detailed picture of how and when opsins evolved, sheds light on the origin of sight in animals, including humans.
View ArticleFirst detailed postcranial anatomy supporting Jeholosaurus as a basal ornithopod
Phylogenetic relationships among basal ornithopod dinosaurs are poorly understood and the published tree topologies for these taxa, and other basal cerapodans, have only weak statistical support....
View ArticleNew cricetid rodent found from the early Oligocene of Yunnan, China
The cricetids, including extant hamsters, constitute one of the most diverse families of rodents. The Eurasian Paleogene and early Neogene cricetid rodents are very diverse, but the phylogenetic...
View ArticleA new thalattosaur found from the Upper Triassic of Guanling, Guizhou, China
Thalattosaurs, literally meaning "ocean lizard", are a group of prehistoric marine reptiles living during the Triassic Period in North America and Eurasia. They bore a superficial resemblance to...
View ArticleWestern Painted Turtle genome decoded: Scientist uncover evolutionary history...
Scientists have recently decoded the genome of the Western Painted Turtle, Chrysemys picta bellii, one of the most widespread, abundant and well-studied turtles in North America. This freshwater turtle...
View ArticleDecoding the genome of the camel
By sequencing the genome of a Bactrian camel, researchers at the Vetmeduni Vienna have made a significant contribution to population genetic research on camels. The study has laid the foundation for...
View ArticleA new Haramiyid indicating a complex pattern of evolution in Mesozoic mammals
A major unsolved problem in mammalian evolution is the origin of Allotheria, including Multituberculata and Haramiyida. Multituberculates are the most diverse and best known Mesozoic era mammals and...
View ArticleSequencing hundreds of nuclear genes in the sunflower family now possible
Advances in DNA sequencing technologies have enormous potential for the plant sciences. With genome-scale data sets obtained from these new technologies, researchers are able to greatly improve our...
View ArticleRapid burst of flowering plants set stage for other species
A new University of Florida study based on DNA analysis from living flowering plants shows that the ancestors of most modern trees diversified extremely rapidly 90 million years ago, ultimately leading...
View ArticleTrimming the Tree of Life
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a sense, Antonis Rokas is an arborist: He is a member of a small cadre to scientists who are applying the growing power of genomics to untangle and correctly arrange the branches of...
View ArticleDatabase gives access to the latest findings about the tree of life
If scientists have identified some two million species, where can you find the latest information about the tree of life that unites them all? A vastly improved database gives scientists and educators...
View ArticleNew 'Tree of Life' established for one of the largest groups of bacteria
A new "tree of life" has been constructed by researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech for the gamma-proteobacteria, a large group of medically and scientifically...
View ArticleLinear sequences for seed plants
Scientists have been working out the best way to arrange plant specimens in herbaria and other collections so that their order best reflects evolutionary relationships.
View ArticleCIPRES Science Gateway clarifies branches in evolution's 'tree of life'
A new Web resource developed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego is helping thousands of researchers worldwide unravel the enigmas of phylogenetics,...
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