Origin of Life News
April 23, 2024
Top Headlines
Apr. 17, 2024 Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a hybrid species, formed by two other species breeding together almost 200,000 years ago. Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a ...
Apr. 18, 2024 The origin of life continues to remain a matter of debate. The ribonucleic acid (RNA) world hypothesis proposes that 'ribozymes' which store genetic information and possess catalytic functions may ...
Apr. 12, 2024 A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or 'seaweed,' to evolve multicellularity. Three lineages of macroalgae developed multicellularity independently and during very different time ...
Apr. 10, 2024 As the centennial of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 approaches, a new study illustrates that the attitudes of Americans in Generation X toward evolution shifted as they ...
Latest Headlines
updated 10:55pm EDT
Apr. 17, 2024 Researchers have identified a variant in the gene TBX1 as key in the development of the unique morphology at the base of the skull. TBX1 is present at higher levels in humans than in closely related ...
Apr. 4, 2024 Biophysicists have demonstrated how heat flows through rock fissures could have created the conditions for the emergence of ...
Apr. 1, 2024 Genomic anamolies dating back to the time of the dinosaurs misled scientists about the evolutionary history of ...
Mar. 28, 2024 What did an ancient Chinese emperor from 1,500 years ago look like? A team of researchers reconstructed the face of Chinese Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou using DNA extracted from his remains. The study ...
Mar. 22, 2024 How was complex life able to develop on the inhospitable early Earth? At the beginning there must have been ribonucleic acid (RNA) to carry the first genetic information. To build up complexity in ...
Mar. 18, 2024 A new report uncovers how hydrogen gas, the energy of the future, provided energy in the past, at the origin of life 4 billion years ago. Hydrogen gas is clean fuel. It burns with oxygen in the air ...
Mar. 21, 2024 The oldest Scandinavian bedrock was 'born' in Greenland, according to a new geological study. The study helps us understand the origin of continents and why Earth is the only planet in our solar ...
Mar. 20, 2024 Researchers have uncovered intriguing details about the origins and spread of the bottle gourd, one of the oldest domesticated crops. Their work ...
Mar. 13, 2024 A new study shines a spotlight on sulfur, a chemical element that, while all familiar, has proved surprisingly resistant to scientific efforts in probing its role in the origin of ...
Mar. 8, 2024 Researchers have discovered a mechanism steering the evolution of multicellular life. They identified how altered protein folding drives ...
Earlier Headlines
Mar. 4, 2024 Scientists provide fresh insights on the origins of life, presenting compelling evidence supporting the 'RNA World' hypothesis. The study unveils an RNA enzyme that can make accurate copies ...
Mar. 4, 2024 Plant biologists have uncovered an evolutionary mystery over 100 million years in the making. It turns out that sometime during the last 125 million years, tomatoes and Arabidopsis thaliana plants ...
Feb. 29, 2024 A technique originally devised to extract DNA from woolly mammoths and other ancient archaeological specimens can be used to potentially identify badly burned human remains, according to ...
Feb. 29, 2024 Scientists have discovered that viruses that infect microbes contribute to climate change by playing a key role in cycling methane, a potent greenhouse gas, through the ...
Feb. 29, 2024 New phospholipid discovery brings researchers closer to understanding how primordial cells emerged during origin of ...
Feb. 28, 2024 Chemists fill a major gap in origin-of-life ...
Feb. 28, 2024 A genetic change in our ancient ancestors may partly explain why humans don't have tails like ...
Feb. 22, 2024 The evolutionary success of the first large predators on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, researchers ...
Feb. 22, 2024 A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesized in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of ...
Feb. 21, 2024 Comparison of over 200 high-quality butterfly and moth genomes reveals key insights into their biology, evolution and diversification over the last 250 million years, as well as clues for ...
Feb. 21, 2024 The sea lamprey, a 500-million-year-old animal with a sharp-toothed suction cup for a mouth, is the thing of nightmares. A new study discovered that the hindbrain -- the part of the brain controlling ...
Feb. 20, 2024 By analysing ancient DNA, an international team of researchers have uncovered cases of chromosomal disorders, including what could be the first case of Edwards syndrome ever identified from ...
Feb. 15, 2024 Researchers report that ancient viruses may be to thank for myelin -- and, by extension, our large, complex brains. The team found that a retrovirus-derived genetic element or ...
Feb. 14, 2024 Vittrup Man was born along the Scandinavian coast before moving to Denmark, where he was later sacrificed, according to a new ...
Feb. 9, 2024 Snail shells are often colorful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on ...
Feb. 8, 2024 Following the arrival of the first farmers in Scandinavia 5,900 years ago, the hunter-gatherer population was wiped out within a few generations, according to a new study. The results, which are ...
Feb. 6, 2024 A mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture characterizes the Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha in northwestern Thailand. Between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago, individuals were buried in large wooden ...
Jan. 31, 2024 Geoscientists have uncovered a missing link in the enigmatic story of how the continents developed- - a revised origin story that doesn't require the start of plate tectonics or any external ...
Jan. 31, 2024 Archaeologists have debated whether Neanderthals or modern humans made stone tools that are found at sites across northern Europe and date from about 40,000 years ago. A new excavation at one site in ...
Jan. 29, 2024 Meteorites are fragments of asteroids which find their way to Earth as shooting stars and provide information on the origins of our solar system. A team of researchers has examined the so-called ...
Monday, March 4, 2024
- Modeling the Origins of Life: New Evidence for an 'RNA World'
- An Evolutionary Mystery 125 Million Years in the Making
Thursday, February 29, 2024
- Scientists ID Burned Bodies Using Technique Used for Extracting DNA from Woolly Mammoths, Neanderthals
- Microbial Viruses Act as Secret Drivers of Climate Change
- How First Cells Could Have Formed on Earth
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
- How Molecular 'handedness' Emerged in Early Biology
- Change in Gene Code May Explain How Human Ancestors Lost Tails
Thursday, February 22, 2024
- Killer Instinct Drove Evolution of Mammals' Predatory Ancestors
- Compound Vital for All Life Likely Played a Role in Life's Origin
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
- Butterfly and Moth Genomes Mostly Unchanged Despite 250 Million Years of Evolution
- An Awkward Family Reunion: Sea Monsters Are Our Cousins
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Friday, February 9, 2024
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
- Source Rocks of the First Real Continents
- Neanderthals and Humans Lived Side by Side in Northern Europe 45,000 Years Ago
Monday, January 29, 2024
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
- DNA from Preserved Feces Reveals Ancient Japanese Gut Environment
- Chemists Use the Blockchain to Simulate Over 4 Billion Chemical Reactions Essential to the Origins of Life
- Syphilis-Like Diseases Were Widespread in Americas Before Arrival of Columbus, Researchers Find
- New Pieces in the Puzzle of First Life on Earth
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Monday, January 22, 2024
Thursday, January 18, 2024
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Monday, January 15, 2024
Friday, January 12, 2024
Thursday, January 11, 2024
- Even the Oldest Eukaryote Fossils Show Dazzling Diversity and Complexity
- Prehistoric Person With Turner Syndrome Identified from Ancient DNA
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Monday, January 8, 2024
- How Did the Bushpig Cross the Strait? A Great Puzzle in African Mammal Biogeography Solved by Genomics
- Evolution Is Not as Random as Previously Thought
Friday, January 5, 2024
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Friday, December 1, 2023
Thursday, November 30, 2023
- A Mixed Origin Made Maize Successful
- Dishing the Dirt on Human Evolution: Why Scientific Techniques Matter in Archaeology
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Thursday, November 16, 2023
- Research in Lake Superior Reveals How Sulfur Might Have Cycled in Earth's Ancient Oceans
- Plants That Survived Dinosaur Extinction Pulled Nitrogen from Air
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Monday, November 13, 2023
- Evolution of Taste: Early Sharks Were Able to Perceive Bitter Substances
- Recreation of Ancient Seawater Reveals Which Nutrients Shaped the Evolution of Early Life
Friday, November 10, 2023
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Monday, November 6, 2023
- 450-Million-Year-Old Organism Finds New Life in Softbotics
- Fossils Tell Tale of Last Primate to Inhabit North America Before Humans
Thursday, November 2, 2023
- New Secrets About Cat Evolution Revealed
- 'Jurassic Worlds' Might Be Easier to Spot Than Modern Earth
Friday, October 27, 2023
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Monday, October 23, 2023
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
- Ancient Diamonds Shine Light on the Evolution of Earth
- The Encounter Between Neanderthals and Sapiens as Told by Their Genomes
Monday, October 16, 2023
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Thursday, October 5, 2023
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Monday, October 2, 2023
Friday, September 29, 2023
- Insights Into Early Snake Evolution Through Brain Analysis
- Did Animal Evolution Begin With a Predatory Lifestyle?
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Friday, September 22, 2023
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
- New Recipes for Origin of Life May Point Way to Distant, Inhabited Planets
- Tiny Sea Creatures Reveal the Ancient Origins of Neurons
- RNA for the First Time Recovered from an Extinct Species
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
- Fossil Spines Reveal Deep Sea's Past
- Pioneering Research Sheds Surprising New Light on Evolution of Plant Kingdom
Thursday, August 31, 2023
- Mutation Rates in Whales Are Much Higher Than Previously Reported
- Tiny Mineral Inclusions Picture the Chemical Exchange Between Earth's Mantle and Atmosphere
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Wednesday, August 9, 2023
- Fossil Feces Infested With Parasites from Over 200 Million Years Ago
- New Research Links Early Europeans' Cultural and Genetic Development Over Several Thousand Years
- The Oldest and Fastest Evolving Moss in the World Might Not Survive Climate Change
- Drops of Seawater Contain Traces of an Ancient World
Friday, August 4, 2023
Wednesday, August 2, 2023
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
- Ancient DNA Reveals Diverse Community in 'Lost City of the Incas'
- Family Trees from the European Neolithic