How teeth became tusks, and tusks became liabilities
“The persistence of elephant poaching has prompted researchers to wonder whether elephants really needed their tusks, and whether they might not be better off if the tuskless trait were to…
biology
Flower Or Flesh? Genetics Explain Mosquito Preference
Imagine a world in which mosquitoes choose blossoms over blood. Nice, right? There already exists a mosquito species called Wyeomyia smithii in which most of the bugs refuse blood meals in favor of sweet…
DNA Reveals That Silky Anteaters Are Seven Species
The silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) has previously been recognized to be a single species divided into several sub-species. But a new genetic analysis, published in the Zoological Journal of the…
Google Has Released an AI Tool That Makes Sense of Your Genome
Almost 15 years after scientists first sequenced the human genome, making sense of the enormous amount of data that encodes human life remains a formidable challenge. But it is also…
Chimp Females Who Leave Home Postpone Parenthood
Wild chimpanzee females in western Tanzania who leave home or are orphaned take roughly three years longer to start a family. The researchers analyzed more than 50 years’ worth of…
Twin Study Finds Genetics Affects Where Children Look, Shaping Mental Development
A new study co-led by Indiana University that tracked the eye movement of twins finds that genetics plays a strong role in how people attend to their environment. Conducted in collaboration…