News by Subject Earth Science

Determining how one species becomes distinct from another has been a subject of fascination dating back to Charles Darwin. New research led by Carnegie's Matthew Evans and published in Nature Communications elucidates the mechanism that keeps maize distinct from its ancient ancestor grass, teosinte.

Scientists from the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum in London have reconstructed the evolutionary history of the chelicerates, the mega-diverse group of 110,000 arthropods that includes spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks.

Crabs from a single species rely on different camouflage techniques depending on what habitat they live in, new research shows.

A new Tel Aviv University study finds that female Egyptian fruit bats form bonds with particular male bats to exchange mating for nourishment.

'Swarms' of wolf-dog crossbreeds could drive Europe's wolves out of existence, according to the lead author of new research.

Older male crickets are better at getting females to live with them -- but they mate less than younger rivals once they find a partner.

An international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the University of Osnabrück, Germany, have observed wild chimpanzees in the Loango National Park, Gabon, eating tortoises. They describe the first observations of this potentially cultural behavior where chimpanzees hit tortoises against tree trunks until the tortoises' shells break open and then feed on the meat.

Model organisms have advanced the study of genomics, eukaryotic biology, and evolution. An important resource for any model organism is a near-complete reference genome. Caenorhabditis elegans have been widely studied due to their short generation time and transparent anatomy and were one of the first multicellular organisms sequenced, yet gaps in their reference genome remain. Three studies, published today in Genome Research, provide novel insights into C. elegans genomics and gene expression.

Fluctuations in the orbital parameters of the Earth are considered to be the trigger for long-term climatic fluctuations such as ice ages. This includes the variation of the inclination angle of the Earth's axis with a cycle of about 40,000 years. Kiel-based marine scientists lead by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel have shown by using a new model that biogeochemical interactions between ocean and atmosphere could also be responsible for climate fluctuations on this time scale.

Beetles infected with parasitic worms put up less of a fight against simulated attacks from predators and rival males, according to a study by Felicia Ebot-Ojong, Andrew Davis and Elizabeth Jurado at the University of Georgia, USA, publishing May 22, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.