Mitochondria are the energy powerhouses in eukaryotic cells. One popular hypothesis claims these organelles were a pre-requisite to the transition from simpler prokaryotes like bacteria and archaea to larger, more complex eukaryotic organisms. The new study challenges this assumption. Credit: Jason DreesIn the beginning, there was boredom. Following the emergence of cellular life on...
A 99-million-year-old piece of amber trapped this worker hell ant grasping an ancient relative of modern cockroaches in its unique jaws, which swung upwards unlike all modern ants.The 99-million-yr-old ant had scythe-like jaws that swung upward to pin prey against a horn-like head appendage.Some 99 million years back, an ant, unlike any alive today,...
Belinda Chang (back left) leads a lab that focuses on the evolutionary transition of animals' vision. Sarah Dungan (right of Chang) researched whale vision as a former member of Chang’s lab. Credit: Diana TyszkoCollege of Toronto researchers have clarified the evolutionary transition of whales' early ancestors from on-shore living to deep-sea foraging, recommending that these...
Horticulturalist Carlos Magdalena in Bolivia viewing the largest known giant water lily species (Victoria boliviana). Credit: Cesar David SalazarAn artist's observations, two botanists' suspicions, and DNA tests reveal a case of mistaken identity among giant water plants.When 19th-century European botanists encountered impressive water lilies with leaves more extensive than a pingpong table, they initially...
Credit: durantelallera/ShutterstockA study looks to find the reason for males having more upper-body mass than women. The research is based on the assumption that men have been fighters for so long that evolution has chosen those best equipped for the task. If men combated other men, winners would have survived and reproduced, losers not...
Researchers have joined macro photography with DNA metabarcoding to create a brand-new botanical "CSI" device that might hold the key to safeguarding the future of Australia's critically endangered carnivorous plants.The brand-new technology-- developed by researchers from Curtin University, the Botanical and Zoological Natural History Collections in Munich, and the University of Munich-- enables specialists...
Credit: Scitech DailyScientists analyzing one of the largest genomic datasets of plants. Have actually found how the first plants on Earth evolved the mechanisms used to control water and 'breathe' on land hundreds of millions of years ago.The research study by the University of Bristol and University of Essex. Published in New Phytologist, has...
After the non-biting midges of the species Chironomus riparius were exposed to microplastics, the genome of subsequent generations changed. Credit: Markus PfenningerIt is typically not even identifiable to the naked eye and harbors risks that can not yet be accurately examined: Microplastics are going into the environment in ever greater concentrations and decompose only...
A new study reveals how male fruit fly decides to a court or ignore female – Harvard Gazette. news.harvard.eduThink development is a slow, gradual process? Inform that to fruit flies. In a brand-new report in Scientific research, researchers from the College of Pennsylvania used a regulated field experiment to reveal that flies swiftly adapted...
Loui (the juvenile male orangutan) using the core as an active element to vertically strike on the concrete floor of the testing room during the Flake Trading condition of Experiment 2. Credit: Motes-Rodrigo et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Untrained, captive orangutans can finish two significant steps in the routine of stone tool use:...
