evolution
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This ‘Map of Life’ Shows Where Undiscovered Species May Be Lurking
Nine years ago, a team of Yale ecologists mapped out the world’s life, a project that showed biodiversity patterns in geographical context; basically, a heat map of animal life. Now, they’ve gone a step further: documenting the likeliest spots for unknown species to still exist, in the hopes that those animals can be documented before…
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Tasmanian Tigers and Wolves Evolved Uncannily Similar Skulls
The extinct thylacine had the stripes of a tiger, the body of a canid, and the pouch of a kangaroo. These ill-fated, predatory marsupials are a classic example of convergent evolution, in which species independently evolve the same traits, and a new study breaks down just how remarkably similar Tasmanian tigers’ skulls were to those…
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Revel In The Evolution Of The Automobile From Steam Powered Cars To The Cadillacs Of The 1970s
As with all technologies, the automobile has evolved through time to reflect the changing needs of its customers. When we needed to travel farther, the car changed to get us there. When we wanted to go faster, manufacturers figured out how. But how did folks understand that evolution back in the late 1970s? Sit back…
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What Fossils and DNA Tell Us About the Evolution of Modern Intelligence
When did something like us first appear on the planet? It turns out there’s remarkably little agreement on this question. Fossils and DNA suggest people looking like us, anatomically modern Homo sapiens, evolved around 300,000 years ago. Surprisingly, archaeology – tools, artefacts, cave art – suggest that complex technology and cultures, “behavioural modernity”, evolved more…