Evolution, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 25, 2017

Human Ancestor Mated with 'Ghost Lineage' And the Proof Is in Your Spit

A protein that helps make human spit slimy reveals signs that the ancestors of modern humans interbred with an extinct human lineage that was an even more distant relation than Neanderthals, a new study finds. The ancestors of modern humans once shared the world with ancient human lineages such as...

Aug 1, 2017

Blossoming Bisexual: World's 1st Flower Had Male and Female Parts

When the world's first flower sprouted about 140 million years ago, it was bisexual, possessing both male and female reproductive parts, according to the researchers who virtually reconstructed the blossom in a new study. The discovery of the dinosaur-age posy sheds light on the evolution and diversification of flowering plants,...

Aug 10, 2017

Here's What the Last Common Ancestor of Apes and Humans Looked Like

The most complete extinct-ape skull ever found reveals what the last common ancestor of all living apes and humans might have looked like, according to a new study. The 13-million-year-old infant skull, which its discoverers nicknamed Alesi, was unearthed in Kenya in 2014. It likely belonged to a fruit-eating, slow-climbing...

Oct 5, 2017

You May Be More 'Neanderthal' Than You Thought

A female Neanderthal who lived in what is now Croatia 52,000 years ago is revealing that our caveman relatives may have passed on genes that play roles in cholesterol levels, eating disorders, arthritis and other diseases today, the researchers who sequenced her genome say. And some modern humans are carrying...

Oct 16, 2017

Your Hair Color and Sleep Habits May Come from Neanderthals

Neanderthal DNA could influence your skin tone, hair color, sleep patterns, mood and even smoking behavior, a new study finds. The finding sheds light on the role Neanderthal genetic variants play in modern human biology in addition to disease, the researchers said. Neanderthals, the closest extinct relatives of modern humans,...

Nov 17, 2017

When You Learn, Your Brain Swells with New Cells — Then It Kills Them

Every time you learn a skill, new cells burst to life in your brain. Then, one after another, those cells die off as your brain figures out which ones it really needs. In a new opinion paper, published online Nov. 14 in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, researchers proposed...

Dec 7, 2017

Survival of the Fishiest? How 'Shape of Water' Creature Could Evolve

A bizarre fish-humanoid creature is subjected to nefarious experiments in film director Guillermo del Toro's new fantasy thriller The Shape of Water. Strange as it is, this fictional creature could be explained — at least somewhat — from an evolutionary perspective, scientists say. The Fox Searchlight Pictures film, which opened...

Jan 5, 2018

Rudeness Wins: Bonobos Are Attracted to Creeps

You like me because I'm a scoundrel, interstellar smuggler Han Solo confidently told Princess Leia Organa in the 1981 film The Empire Strikes Back. And scientists recently discovered a similar preference in bonobos, the great apes that are close relatives of chimpanzees. Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are helpful sweethearts compared with...

Feb 23, 2018

Evolution May Make it Harder for Humans to Hold Their Liquor

Humans are still evolving… but before toasting to that, know this: Some of the genetic changes may make hangovers worse, a new study finds. So far, only certain populations have genetic adaptations that make it hard for them to process alcohol, but there's no telling how fast it will spread...

Apr 4, 2018

Neanderthals' Big Noses Get an Airy Explanation

In the human family tree, Neanderthals are our closest extinct relatives, and they looked a lot like modern humans. But one defining difference was a distinctive skull shape, with the middle part of their faces pushed forward dramatically — far more so than in their human cousins. Scientists have argued...

May 24, 2018

Can You Teach Evolution Without Saying the Word? Arizona Is About to Find Out.

Evolution may soon have a severely diminished role in Arizona science classrooms if proposed changes to the state's educational standards are approved. According to a report by Capitol Media Services published in the Arizona Daily Star, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas has proposed to largely eliminate mentions of...

Jun 22, 2018

The 'Perfect' Human Body Is Not What You Think

What makes a so-called perfect human body? How about skin like a squid's or legs like an ostrich's? For anatomist Alice Roberts, a medical doctor and writer, the vision of human perfection had nothing to do with modern standards of fitness and beauty. Rather, she imagined how a person's body...

Jun 26, 2018

Mini Neanderthal Brains Are Growing in Petri Dishes

Neanderthals went extinct about 40,000 years ago, but thanks to cutting-edge science, there is now a lab in California that has petri dishes filled with pea-size versions of the cavemen's brains. Why are researchers cultivating and studying these mini brains? The reason, they say, is that these small neural lumps...

Jul 4, 2018

Ancient Human Ancestors Had to Deal with Climbing Toddlers

More than 3 million years ago, our adult human ancestors were walking on two feet and didn't have the option of a fashionable baby sling to carry their kids around in. Instead, Australopithecus afarensis toddlers had a special grasping toe that helped them hold on to their mothers and escape...

Jul 11, 2018

Earliest Evidence of Our Human Ancestors Outside of Africa Found

Our ancient human relatives got around more than scientists previously thought. Researchers in China excavated stone tools that were likely made by our human ancestors some 2.12 million years ago — the earliest evidence ever discovered of the human lineage outside of Africa. It suggests a way earlier migration out...