The Human Dynasty

University of Leeds spin-out Xeros has formed a partnership with US dry cleaning technology group GreenEarth in a deal which heralds the next stage in the company’s evolution.

A study of giant kangaroo fossils adds weight to the theory that hunters caused the extinction of Australia’s “megafauna”.

Researchers have developed the first detailed images of a primitive primate brain, unexpectedly revealing that cousins of our earliest ancestors relied on smell more than sight.

(Carnegie Mellon University) A new algorithm developed by Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists has revealed for the first time how genetic networks in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, evolve during the insect’s life cycle. The new algorithm, called Tesla, incorporates machine learning techniques that enable researchers to figure out how the rewiring of those networks takes place as the insect develops.

Plants or meat: that’s about all that fossils ever tell paleontologists about a dinosaur’s diet. But the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds. These characteristics present the first solid evidence of nut-eating in any dinosaur.

Scientists have shown that microorganisms can “learn” through evolution to anticipate upcoming events and prepare for them.

Scientists have discovered a unique beaked, plant-eating dinosaur in China. The finding, they say, demonstrates that theropod, or bird-footed, dinosaurs were more ecologically diverse in the Jurassic period than previously thought, and offers important evidence about how the three-fingered hand of birds evolved from the hand of dinosaurs.

(University of Chicago) Plants or meat: that’s about all that fossils ever tell paleontologists about a dinosaur’s diet. But the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds. These characteristics present the first solid evidence of nut-eating in any dinosaur.

(Weizmann Institute of Science) Israeli scientists have shown that microorganisms can “learn” through evolution to anticipate upcoming events and prepare for them.

(National Science Foundation) Scientists have discovered a unique beaked, plant-eating dinosaur in China. The finding, they say, demonstrates that theropod, or bird-footed, dinosaurs were more ecologically diverse in the Jurassic period than previously thought, and offers important evidence about how the three-fingered hand of birds evolved from the hand of dinosaurs.