evolution

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Giant Bunny Fossils Discovered Off Spain

'King of rabbits' was 6 times the size of modern bunnies

(Newser) - On the Spanish island of Minorca up to 5 million years ago, the rabbit was king. Researchers there have discovered fossils belonging to the biggest-ever member of the bunny family, LiveScience reports. Nuralagus rex, weighing in at some 26 pounds—about six times the size of modern rabbits—had largely...

Why Humans No Longer Have Spiky Penises

It's all because of a missing piece of DNA

(Newser) - Were it not for evolution, sex could be a pretty uncomfortable prospect. But fortunately for humans, the male penis evolved in one particularly nice way: it lost its spikes. Some animals, including chimps and mice, still have penises dotted with hard spines. But Stanford researchers have discovered one particular chunk...

'Darwin Day' Celebrated in Rural US, Quietly

Biologists take the opportunity to show kids science is 'cool'

(Newser) - How to celebrate "Darwin Day" in rural America? Very carefully, the New York Times reports: When evolutionary biologists set out on a road trip this weekend to Virginia, Nebraska, Montana, and Iowa to promote science in honor of Charles Darwin's 202nd birthday, one high school principal made sure to...

Unlocking the Mystery of Neanderthals' Big Nose

It wasn't oversize because of cold temps

(Newser) - If you think Neanderthals, with their broad foreheads and big noses, were, well, not so attractive, don't blame the cold for their looks . For 150 years, scientists have theorized that Neanderthals' distinctive appearance was an adaptation that allowed them to withstand ice-age Europe's freezing conditions—but new research has found...

Poll: 40% of Americans Are Creationists

Only 16% believe humanity evolved without God

(Newser) - Creationists beliefs are on the wane but a full 40% of Americans still believe that God created humans in their current form 10,000 years ago, according to the latest Gallup poll. But the proportion of people with creationists beliefs was the lowest since Gallup started asking the question in...

Mammals Grew Huge After Dino Die-Off

With less competition for vegetation, they 'exploded' in size

(Newser) - Mammals were a lot smaller before the dinosaurs went extinct—but got really, really, really big once dinos were gone, scientists say. New research published in the journal Science shows that, over the course of 25 million years, the largest mammals increased in size 1,000-fold from the time of...

Early Man Survived By Growing Up Slowly

It's how we outsmarted the Neanderthals

(Newser) - Immaturity may be the key to the human race’s dominance. Neanderthals have brains roughly the same size as early humans, and their tools were just as good, so scientists have long puzzled over how Homo sapiens became the top primates on the block. Now, some scientists think they have...

Evolution Began 400 Million Years Early: Scientists

Team uncovers secret in Scottish Highlands

(Newser) - A team of scientists studying rocks in Scotland has discovered that the evolution of earth’s organisms from simple microbes to complex lifeforms began about 400 million years earlier than previously believed. Geochemical analysis of the rocks indicates that oxygen levels began to rise to a useful level about 1....

Christine O'Donnell: 'Evolution Is a Myth'

'Why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans?' she asks

(Newser) - Today on myth-busting with Christine O'Donnell : Evolution! Keeping his promise to air an embarrassing clip of the tea party favorite every week until she agrees to come on his show, Bill Maher dug up a 1998 interview in which O'Donnell denies the plausibility of evolution. Here's a sample : O'DONNELL: "...

Hump-Backed Feathered Dino Discovered

Mystery dinosaur offers link to first birds

(Newser) - It had a mysterious hump over its pelvis and feather-attachment bumps on its forearms: Meet the newly discovered Concavenator corcovatus, a dinosaur scientists hope will offer clues about the emergence of the first birds. Paleontologists unearthed the dino, a member of the theropod family, in central Spain. And while its...

Darwin's 'Survival of the Fittest' Disputed

Living space, not competition, spurs evolution: study

(Newser) - Room for expansion, not survival of the fittest, is the driving force behind evolution, according to a new study. The researchers—who say their findings cast doubt on one of the cornerstones of Charles Darwin's theories—studied evolutionary patterns over 400 million years and determined that biodiversity soared not when...

Ape With a Knife Changes Human History

Carved bones found in Africa show Stone Age began a million years earlier

(Newser) - It turns out that human ape Australopithecus afarensis Lucy likely used some kind of stone knife to eat meat 800,000 years earlier than previously thought, which has suddenly cast human history in a new light. The discovery of fossil animal bones showing evidence of being butchered 3.4 million...

Meat Made Us Smarter

 Meat Made Us Smarter 
in case you missed it
Aug 7, 2010 7:00 PM CDT

Meat Made Us Smarter

...and learning how to cook it made us human

(Newser) - Sorry, vegetarians: Humans have meat to thank for the evolutionary changes that made us the large-brained tool-users we are today. Some 2.3 million years ago, our ancestors made the jump from gnawing all day on leaves and nuts to scavenging carcasses. This, anthropologists say, was the magic moment when...

Pets Helped Humans Evolve
 Pets Helped 
 Humans Evolve 
Aug 3, 2010 12:56 PM CDT

Pets Helped Humans Evolve

Interspecies connection is 'very deep and very old'

(Newser) - The connection between humans and domesticated animals goes back millions of years and may have helped humans develop tools and even language, researchers say. The interspecies connection—nearly unique to humans and their pets and livestock—"connects the other big evolutionary leaps, including stone tools, language and domestication,"...

Tibetans 'Fastest-Evolving People on Earth'

Mutations allow Tibetans to thrive at high altitude

(Newser) - The Tibetan people have evolved to suit their high-altitude home with astonishing speed, say researchers. Biologists who compared the genomes of Tibetans living in villages up to 3 miles above sea level with Han Chinese found that 30 genes had undergone adaptive mutations in the 3,000 years since lowland...

Ugly Fish Have Stronger Sperm

Pretty boys get the girl first and still finish last

(Newser) - Pretty, colorful guppy guys may get all the ladies, but ugly guppies have “better sperm,” researchers concluded in a recent study. The group watched tropical guppies, and concluded that the colorful men had to “invest” in their beauty at the expense of slowing down their sperm. That's...

Ad Attacks Ala. Candidate for Belief in Evolution

I believe every single word of Bible, Byrne protests

(Newser) - A candidate for Alabama governor is fighting back against an ad that accuses him of supporting evolution and believing the Bible is "only partially true." Bradley Byrne says the ad is filled with "despicable lies:" "As a Christian and as a public servant, I have...

Chimps Shake Heads 'No'
 Chimps Shake Heads 'No' 
LIKE HUMANS...
May 6, 2010 1:07 PM CDT

Chimps Shake Heads 'No'

Scientists spot decidedly familiar gesture

(Newser) - Saying “no” by shaking our heads back and forth may just be a habit we inherited from our evolutionary precursors. Researchers have filmed Bonobo chimps at the Leipzig Zoo shaking their heads in much the same way, the BBC reports. In one film, for example, a mother shakes her...

Scientists Uncover Human-Like Species

Boys find fossilized skeleton in South Africa

(Newser) - A paleoanthropologist, his 9-year-old son, and his dog have uncovered a fossil that's generating a lot of "missing link" headlines. (Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post explains why those headlines are wrong here .) The boy was playing on a hill in South Africa, near where his father was...

Why Men Get Sicker Than Women
 Why Men Get Sicker 
 Than Women 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 28, 2010 11:49 AM CDT

Why Men Get Sicker Than Women

Men 'live fast, die young,' so immunity is traded for sex drive

(Newser) - The phenomenon euphemistically referred to as “man flu”—the notion that men get sicker and sick more often than women—is real, researchers say. British doctors swear the theory is upheld by sophisticated computer models: The male immune system is underdeveloped compared to the female because men are...

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