Katie Hunt, CNN On the Galapagos Islands, a ground finch that usually munched on small, soft seeds was forced, during a drought, to eat harder, larger ones. Within the space of a few generations, the bird evolved a larger but shorter beak better suited to cracking large seeds. The Galapagos medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis).… Read More The man who has transformed our understanding of evolution
October 8 (ANI): A team of researchers was able to use a combination of genomic sequencing and song analysis to identify a rare hybrid bird, whose ancestors haven’t shared the same breeding location or lineage for 10 million years. When Gosser finally located the songbird, he saw what appeared to be a rose-breasted grosbeak, but… Read More Birdsong reveals rare hybrid coupling 10 million years in the making
It’s been 27 years since geologist David Roberts identified some of the oldest footprints of our species ever discovered. The trackway of three footprints was found on the surface of a cemented sand dune (called an aeolianite) near Langebaan on South Africa’s west coast. The tracks were later dated to 117,000 years and were attributed to Homo… Read More Charles Helm – Ancient human tracks on South Africa’s west coast: 3 reasons they are an exciting find
Until a couple of centuries ago, more than a quarter of children died before their first birthday, around half before their fifth. In “Extra Life,” Steven Johnson, a writer of popular books on science and technology, tells the stories behind what he calls, in an understatement, “one of the greatest achievements in the history of… Read More Book review – EXTRA LIFE: A Short History of Living Longer
Swan’s book is staggering in its findings. “In some parts of the world, the average twentysomething woman today is less fertile than her grandmother was at 35,” Swan writes. In addition to that, Swan finds that, on average, a man today will have half of the sperm his grandfather had. “The current state of reproductive… Read More Erin Brockovich – Plummeting sperm counts, shrinking penises: toxic chemicals threaten humanity
She unearthed fantastic prehistoric creatures that had been lost to the sands of time, and her achievements — overlooked and uncredited while she was alive — also almost remained buried. An unsung pioneer of paleontology, Mary Anning is finally getting some of the recognition she deserves thanks to the tireless work of academics and campaigners.… Read More Katie Hunt: 'Ammonite' and 5 more works about women overlooked by history
Thousands of rock art pictures depicting huge Ice Age creatures such as mastodons have been revealed by researchers in the Amazon rainforest. The paintings were probably made around 11,800 to 12,600 years ago, according to a press release from researchers at Britain’s University of Exeter. The paintings are set over three different rock shelters, with the largest, known… Read More Jack Guy: Spectacular eight-mile frieze of Ice Age beasts found in Amazon rainforest
After the truth-shower 