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Climate change will reduce crop yields sooner than thought

Climate change will reduce crop yields sooner than thought
A study led by the University of Leeds has shown that global warming of only 2°C will be detrimental to crops in temperate and tropical regions, with reduced yields from the 2030s onwards. Professor Andy Challinor, from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds and lead author of the study, said:…
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Dinosaur skull may reveal T. rex’s smaller cousin from the north

Dinosaur skull may reveal T. rex’s smaller cousin from the north
A 70 million year old fossil found in the Late Cretaceous sediments of Alaska reveals a new small tyrannosaur, according to a paper published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 12, 2014 by co-authors Anthony Fiorillo and Ronald S. Tykoski from Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Texas, and colleagues. Tyrannosaurs, the lineage of carnivorous…
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Odd Cause of Humans’ Dark Skin Proposed

Odd Cause of Humans’ Dark Skin Proposed
Skin cancer could have directly driven the evolution of dark skin in humans, a study on people with albinism in modern Africa suggests. Albinism is an inherited disorder that prevents people from making melanin, a black or brown pigment. Albino people in sub-Saharan Africa almost universally die of skin cancer — and at young ages, according to a…
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New fossil species: Origin of toothed whale echolocation

New fossil species: Origin of toothed whale echolocation
Research led by an anatomy professor at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine indicates that echolocation -- the sonar-like system based on high-frequency vocalizations and their echoes -- was present in a 28-million-year old relative of modern-day toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Associate Professor Jonathan Geisler led the study of a new…
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Using Laser Fingerprinting To Identify Salmonella

Using Laser Fingerprinting To Identify Salmonella
Bacteria from the genus Salmonella are a major cause of food poisoning. About 40,000 cases of salmonella food poisoning are reported in the United States every year, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one million people are actually infected with the bacterium every year. Researchers have now developed a new, more rapid…
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Convergent evolution: New fins evolve repeatedly in teleost fishes

Convergent evolution: New fins evolve repeatedly in teleost fishes
Though present in more than 6,000 living species of fish, the adipose fin, a small appendage that lies between the dorsal fin and tail, has no clear function and is thought to be vestigial. However, a new study analyzing their origins finds that these fins arose repeatedly and independently in multiple species. In addition, adipose…
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30,000 year-old giant virus found in Siberia

30,000 year-old giant virus found in Siberia
A new type of giant virus called "Pithovirus" has been discovered in the frozen ground of extreme north-eastern Siberia by researchers from the Information Génomique et Structurale laboratory (CNRS/AMU), in association with teams from the Biologie à Grande Echelle laboratory (CEA/INSERM/Université Joseph Fourier), Génoscope (CEA/CNRS) and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Buried underground, this giant…
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When Trilobites Ruled the World

When Trilobites Ruled the World
 Trilobites may be the archetypal fossils, symbols of an archaic world long swept beneath the ruthless road grader of time. But we should all look so jaunty after half a billion years. At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Brian T. Huber, chairman of paleobiology, points to a flawless specimen of Walliserops, a five-inch trilobite that swam the Devonian…
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‘Tunnels’ and ‘spheres’ in meteorite revive debate over life on Mars

‘Tunnels’ and ‘spheres’ in meteorite revive debate over life on Mars
The discovery of tiny carbon-rich balls and tunnels inside a Martian meteorite has once again raised the possibility that the Red Planet was teeming with primitive life millions of years ago. The meteorite, which fell to Earth during the Stone Age, contains microscopic burrows and spheres that resemble the marks microorganisms leave when they eat…
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Competition breeds new fish species, study finds

Competition breeds new fish species, study finds
Competition may play an important role during the evolution of new species, but empirical evidence for this is scarce, despite being implicit in Charles Darwin's work and support from theoretical studies. Dr Martin Genner from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and colleagues used population genetics and experimental evidence to demonstrate a role for competition that…
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