Mountains may be cradles of evolution

September 28th, 2009 LONDON - Experiments in stickleback fish have shown for the first time that the evolution of new sex chromosomes is the driving force behind the formation of a new vertebrate species. Up until now, most evidence has shown that new species arise because they have adapted to new environments.

September 15th, 2009 SYDNEY - An international team of researchers has come by molecular evidence to support a key tenet of Darwin's theory of evolution. Trevor Lithgow, Monash University's professor, said the breakthrough provides a blueprint for a general understanding of the evolution of the "machinery" of our cells.

August 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Professor Richard Dawkins, author of books on evolution as well as religion, has said that popularising evolution in the Islamic world, where creationist beliefs are strong, was a challenge and he is keen to take up. Professor Dawkins' books have never been translated into Arabic.

August 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA-funded research has found that humans not might be walking on Earth today if not for the ancient fusing of two microscopic, single-celled organisms called prokaryotes 2.5 billion years ago, which reveals a new pathway for the evolution of life on Earth. By comparing proteins present in more than 3000 different prokaryotes - a type of single-celled organism without a nucleus - molecular biologist James A.

August 6th, 2009 LONDON - Researchers at the University of Zaragoza have unearthed what they believe is man's earliest map, dating from almost 14,000 years ago. The research team, led by archaeologist Pilar Utrilla, discovered a stone tablet in a cave in Abauntz in the Navarra region of northern Spain in 1993 but it has taken them 15 years to disentangle the mess of etched lines.

July 28th, 2009 SYDNEY - Mammals living in the tropics are evolving faster than those inhabiting cooler regions, according to a new study. Previously, it had been assumed that rates of genetic change in warm-blooded animals were independent of climate.

July 26th, 2009 LONDON - Here's some good news for the ladies: a group of scientists has claimed that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful. While men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors, the boffins added.

July 16th, 2009 SYDNEY - The male members of an ancient fish species known as sea dinosaurs impregnated females with penis like organs 380 million years ago, just like modern day sharks. Some fish species engaged in penetrative sex and gave birth to young ones, according to a study conducted by Curtin University of Technology (CUT).

July 2nd, 2009 LONDON - A mummified dinosaur unearthed in North Dakota, US, may contain traces of 66-million-year old organic material, which could provide vital information about its evolution. The well-preserved fossil of the plant-eating hadrosaur, complete with skin and tendons, was discovered in 1999.

July 2nd, 2009 LONDON - If a new survey is anything to go by, majority of people think it is possible to believe in God and evolution. The survey, conducted by the British Council, revealed that 54 per cent thought that science and religion are compatible.

June 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at UC (University of California) Santa Barbara have zeroed in on the genes responsible for changing flower color. In an article published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, two researchers document their studies of the evolution of columbine flowers in North America.

June 25th, 2009 LONDON - In a new study, scientists have found out that evolution in animals is faster in regions with warmer climates, which could help explain why the warm topics are so species-rich. According to a report by BBC News, researchers have found that among pairs of mammals of the same species, the DNA of those living in warmer climates changes at a faster rate.

June 5th, 2009 LONDON - A new study, based on archaeological records and mathematical simulations, has claimed that lethal warfare drove the evolution of selfless behaviour among ancient humans. If correct, the new model solves a long-standing puzzle in human evolution: how did our species transition from creatures interested in little more than passing down their own genes to societies of law-abiding monogamists? No one knows for sure when these changes happened, but climactic swings that occurred between approximately 10,000 to 150,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene period may have pushed once-isolated bands of hunter-gatherers into more frequent contact with one another, Samuel Bowles, an evolutionary biologist at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and the University of Siena, Italy, who led the study, told New Scientist.

June 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has shown that different genes can cause loss of body parts in similar fish, by comparing how 2 species of sticklebacks lost pelvises and body armor. The research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Divisions of Environmental Biology and Integrative Organismal Systems, shows that when two species of stickleback fish evolved and lost their pelvises and body armor, different genes in each species caused the changes.

May 11th, 2009 LONDON - Famous broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, is all set to present a documentary claiming to have discovered a missing link in human evolution - a monkey-like creature called an adapid. According to a report in the Telegraph, the programme, which would be aired on the BBC later this month, could help to resolve the debate about which kind of primates humans are descended from.