Charles Darwin News
June 9, 2025
Top Headlines
May 28, 2025 A new species of velvet worm, Peripatopsis barnardi, represents the first ever species from the arid Karoo, which indicates that the area was likely historically more forested than at present. In the Cape Fold Mountains, we now know that every ...
May 29, 2025 A new study reveals that the aerobic nitrogen cycle in the ocean may have occurred about 100 million years before oxygen began to significantly accumulate in the atmosphere, based on nitrogen isotope analysis from ancient South African rock cores. ...
May 28, 2025 Palaeontologists have analyzed the most complete stegosaurian skull ever found in Europe and rewritten the evolutionary history of this iconic group of ...
May 28, 2025 Researchers compared the whole genome sequence of two genetically distinct lineages of bed bug, and their findings indicate bed bugs may well be the first true urban ...
May 26, 2025 A gene that regulates the development of roots in vascular plants is also involved in the organ development of liverworts -- land plants so old they don't even have proper roots. The discovery highlights the fundamental evolutionary dynamic of ...
May 23, 2025 Cold-adapted animals started to evolve 2.6 million years ago when the permanent ice at the poles became more prevalent. There followed a time when the continental ice sheets expanded and contracted and around 700,000 years ago the cold periods ...
May 22, 2025 Researchers have analyzed ancient DNA from Borrelia recurrentis, a type of bacteria that causes relapsing fever, pinpointing when it evolved to spread through lice rather than ticks, and how it gained and lost genes in the ...
May 22, 2025 A new study proves that a type of genetic element called 'introners' are the mechanism by which many introns spread within and between species, also providing evidence of eight instances in which ...
May 20, 2025 Plants that reproduce exclusively by self-pollination arise from populations with extremely low diversity to begin with. The research not only adds a facet to possible evolutionary strategies, but also lends weight to Darwin's suspicion that this ...
May 20, 2025 To better understand the circadian clock in modern-day cyanobacteria, a research team has studied ancient timekeeping systems. They examined the oscillation of the clock proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC ...
May 16, 2025 Scientists have decoded the atomic structure of Photosystem I from a 3-billion-year-old cyanobacteria lineage, offering a unique look at early oxygen-producing photosynthesis. The ancient nanodevice, ...
May 15, 2025 An international genomics study has revealed that early Asians undertook humanity's longest known prehistoric migration. These early humans, who roamed the earth over 100,000 years ago, are believed ...
Latest Headlines
updated 1:31pm EDT
May 14, 2025 Scientists have found new evidence for how our fossil human relatives in South Africa may have used their hands. Researchers investigated variation ...
May 14, 2025 Archaeopteryx is the fossil that clearly demonstrated Darwin's views. It's the oldest known fossil bird, and it helps show that all birds -- ...
May 9, 2025 Modern HIV medicine is based on a common genetic mutation. Now, researchers have traced where and when the mutation arose -- and how it protected our ancestors from ancient ...
May 7, 2025 Life depends on genes being switched on and off at exactly the right time. Even the simplest living organisms do this, but usually over short distances across the DNA sequence, with the on/off switch ...
May 5, 2025 At a conference in Washington D.C. in 2000, the secretoglobin super family of proteins was named to classify proteins with structural similarities to its founding member uteroglobin. Now, 25 years ...
Apr. 23, 2025 A new study found that some rattlesnakes are producing simpler venoms containing fewer and more focused toxin families than complex venoms -- a surprising discovery that challenges long-held ideas ...
Apr. 21, 2025 An international collaboration has published groundbreaking research, shedding light on the most significant increase in complexity in the history of life's evolution on Earth: the origin of the ...
Apr. 21, 2025 What roils beneath the Earth's surface may feel a world away, but the activity can help forge land masses that dictate ocean circulation, climate ...
Apr. 18, 2025 Scientists report adaptive divergence in cryptic color pattern is underlain by two distinct, complex chromosomal rearrangements, where millions of ...
Apr. 18, 2025 Researchers have demonstrated that intensified environmental variability (EV) can promote the evolution of cooperation through simulation based on ...
Earlier Headlines
Apr. 9, 2025 A new genomic study has uncovered long-lost genetic diversity in mammoth lineages spanning over a million years, providing new insights into the evolutionary history of these ...
Apr. 3, 2025 Scientists have helped to construct a detailed timeline for bacterial evolution, suggesting some bacteria used oxygen long before evolving the ability to produce it through ...
Apr. 3, 2025 Since Darwin's time, the phenomenon known as flower constancy -- i.e., where insects consistently visit the same flower type even when many others are also present -- has been understood as a ...
Apr. 2, 2025 Jurassic dinosaurs milled about ancient Scottish lagoons, leaving up to 131 footprints at a newly discovered stomping ground on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, according to a new ...
Apr. 2, 2025 An international team has sequenced the first ancient genomes from the so-called Green Sahara, a period when the largest desert in the world temporarily turned into a humid savanna-like environment. ...
Mar. 31, 2025 Researchers have uncovered a complete Quina technological system in the Longtan site in southwest China. The discovery challenges the widely held perception that the Middle Paleolithic period was ...
Mar. 31, 2025 A study presents a striking example of cooperative organization among cells as a potential force in the evolution of multicellular life. The study is based on the fluid dynamics of cooperative ...
Mar. 26, 2025 Scientists uncovered how whole-genome duplication emerges and remains stable over thousands of generations of evolution in the ...
Mar. 26, 2025 New research sheds light on the earliest days of the earth's formation and potentially calls into question some earlier assumptions in planetary science about the early years of rocky planets. ...
Mar. 26, 2025 Two specific genes that evolve exclusively in humans jointly influence the development of the cerebrum. Researchers have provided evidence that these genes contribute together to the evolutionary ...
Mar. 25, 2025 Life needs sufficient phosphorus. However, the element is scarce, not only today but also at the time of the origin of life. So where was there sufficient phosphorus four billion years ago for life ...
Mar. 25, 2025 Enzymes originally evolved in high-temperature environments and later adapted to lower temperatures as Earth cooled. Scientists discovered that a key shift in enzyme function occurred over ...
Mar. 21, 2025 Who were our earliest ancestors? The answer could lie in a special group of single-celled organisms with a cytoskeleton similar to that of complex organisms, such as animals and ...
Mar. 20, 2025 Feathers, essential for thermoregulation, flight, and communication in birds, originate from simple appendages known as proto-feathers, which were present in certain dinosaurs.By studying embryonic ...
Mar. 20, 2025 Sharp stone technology chipped over three million years allowed early humans to exploit animal and plant food resources. But how did the production of stone tools -- called 'knapping' -- ...
Mar. 18, 2025 Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the ...
Mar. 18, 2025 Humans' unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago, according to a survey of genomic evidence. As such, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ...
Mar. 17, 2025 The only iguanas outside the Americas, Fiji iguanas are an enigma. A new genetic analysis shows that they are most closely related to the North American desert iguana, having separated about 34 ...
Mar. 13, 2025 A recent study has reclassified the species commonly known as the Javan rhinoceros, proposing a more precise scientific name: Eurhinoceros sondaicus. The research highlights key differences in body ...
Mar. 10, 2025 Without plants on land, humans could not live on Earth. From mosses to ferns to grasses to trees, plants are our food, fodder and timber. All this diversity emerged from an algal ancestor that ...
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Thursday, April 3, 2025
- Machine Learning Helps Construct an Evolutionary Timeline of Bacteria
- Bees Actively Adjust Flower Choice Based on Color and Distance: Updating 'flower Constancy' Beyond Darwin's Theory
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
- Footprints Reveal Prehistoric Scottish Lagoons Were Stomping Grounds for Giant Jurassic Dinosaurs
- First Ancient Genomes from the Green Sahara Deciphered
Monday, March 31, 2025
- Discovery of Quina Technology Challenges View of Ancient Human Development in East Asia
- 'She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not': Physical Forces Encouraged Evolution of Multicellular Life, Scientists Propose
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
- Scientists Uncover Key Mechanism in Evolution: Whole-Genome Duplication Drives Long-Term Adaptation
- Earliest Days of Earth's Formation
- How Did the Large Brain Evolve?
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Friday, March 21, 2025
Thursday, March 20, 2025
- From Dinosaurs to Birds: The Origins of Feather Formation
- Researchers Propose New Hypothesis for the Origin of Stone Tools
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Monday, March 17, 2025
Thursday, March 13, 2025
Monday, March 10, 2025
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
- Earliest Evidence for Humans in Rainforests
- Fish Teeth Show How Ease of Innovation Enables Rapid Evolution
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
- Humans Inherited Their Flexible Joints from the Earliest Jawed Fish
- New Study Reveals Neanderthals Experienced Population Crash 110,000 Years Ago
Monday, February 24, 2025
Friday, February 14, 2025
Thursday, February 13, 2025
- Evolution, Evolution, Evolution: How Evolution Got So Good at Evolving
- Birds Have Developed Complex Brains Independently from Mammals
Monday, February 10, 2025
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Monday, February 3, 2025
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Friday, January 24, 2025
Thursday, January 23, 2025
- New Twist in Mystery of Dinosaurs' Origin
- Plant's Name-Giving Feature Found to Be New Offspring-Ensuring Method
- Streamlining Genetic Analysis for Phylogenetic Studies
- Solving the Evolutionary Puzzle of Polyploidy: How Genome Duplication Shapes Adaptation
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
- Coyote Genes May Show Urban Evolution at Work
- Protein Shapes Can Help Untangle Life's Ancient History
Friday, January 10, 2025
Thursday, January 9, 2025
- An Earful of Gill: Evolutionary Origin of the Mammalian Outer Ear
- The Extreme Teeth of Sabre-Toothed Predators Were 'optimal' For Biting Into Prey
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Monday, January 6, 2025
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Thursday, December 12, 2024
- Study Sheds Light on the Origin of the Genetic Code
- Unique Motor Control System of Anglerfish's Specialized 'fishing Rod' Discovered
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
- Biological Diversity Is Not Just the Result of Genes
- New Research Unlocks Jaw-Dropping Evolution of Lizards and Snakes
Thursday, December 5, 2024
- Chimpanzees Perform the Same Complex Behaviors That Have Brought Humans Success
- DNA of 1,000 Year-Old Maize Sheds Light on Origins of Globally Important Food Crop
Monday, December 2, 2024
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Monday, November 18, 2024
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Monday, November 11, 2024
Friday, November 8, 2024
Friday, November 1, 2024
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Friday, October 25, 2024
Thursday, October 24, 2024
Monday, October 21, 2024
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Monday, October 14, 2024
Friday, October 11, 2024
Thursday, October 10, 2024
- How Playing Songs to Darwin's Finches Helped Biologists Confirm Link Between Environment and the Emergence of New Species
- Early Human Species Benefited from Food Diversity in Steep Mountainous Terrain
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Friday, October 4, 2024
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
- Brazilian Fossils Reveal Jaw-Dropping Discovery in Mammal Evolution
- World's Oldest Cheese Reveals Origins of Kefir
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Monday, September 16, 2024
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Monday, September 9, 2024
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Friday, August 30, 2024
Monday, August 26, 2024
Friday, August 23, 2024
Thursday, August 22, 2024
- Creature the Size of a Dust Grain Found Hiding in California's Mono Lake
- How Baleen Whales Have Adapted Over the Past 50 Million Years