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Amphibians, Reptiles, & Natural History
Amphibians, Reptiles, & Natural History
In flowering plants, the transition from cross-fertilization (outcrossing) to self-fertilization has evolved repeatedly across species. This shift is often accompanied by a well-known set of traits collectively called the "selfing syndrome," including smaller flowers and reduced scent. However, a new study highlights that important but largely overlooked changes also occur at the microscopic level of pollen biology.
Most of what scientists know about face development comes from studies in bony vertebrates such as mice, chickens, and zebrafish. However, their evolutionary counterparts, cartilaginous fishes, have remained largely unexplored. This gap has limited our understanding of how facial structures evolved at the origin of jawed vertebrates.
When species are subjected to changing environments, they can survive in their current location through genetic adaptation. However, this ability is not unlimited. In a study published in PNAS, biomathematician Jitka Polechová of the University of Vienna shows that, even when environmental change is only gradual, there is a tipping point beyond which adaptation can suddenly fail. When that happens, species' ranges may shrink or populations may fragment into separate subpopulations.
When the Atlantic herring colonized the Baltic Sea thousands of years ago, it needed to adapt to the low salinity. Genes with a vital role in the functioning of sperm, eggs and embryos were crucial to this adaptation. A new study by researchers from Uppsala University and other institutions, published in the journal PNAS, shows that mutations in four specific genes were particularly important.
We are all born completely helpless, with little of the knowledge and skills we will need to survive as adults. Even our ability to communicate is almost entirely learned from our parents or caregivers.
Biologists have long puzzled over why organisms with similar numbers of protein-coding genes can differ so dramatically in nervous system complexity. New research points to a potential link between the expanding diversity of RNA-binding proteins, which shape how genetic instructions are processed, and greater brain sophistication.
When scientists think about how plants will respond to climate change, they often look north. As temperatures rise, many species are expected to shift their ranges toward cooler regions with a loss of populations in warmer habitats. But new research from the University of Virginia, published in the journal Evolution Letters, suggests the story may be more complicated and more hopeful.
Humans and other animals are constantly required to make decisions under uncertain conditions or while in rapidly changing environments. Past psychology and biology studies showed that some decision-making strategies can be more effective than others in specific circumstances.
The molecule cAMP, which plays essential roles in mammalian cells, is less well understood in plants. In a new Science Advances paper, researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators demonstrate that plants use two forms of cAMP in parallel to regulate normal cellular processes and respond to stress, while maintaining crosstalk between them.
The four-foot-tall Emperor penguin of Antarctica may be the most iconic member of this unique family of birds, but 17 other species of penguins populate the Southern Hemisphere, many of them confined to isolated islands that make them hard to study.
When an asteroid as big as Mount Everest struck Earth 66 million years ago, it wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and roughly a third of life on the planet. But many plants survived the devastation. In a new study published in Cell, researchers reveal that the accidental duplications of genomes—a natural phenomenon—might have helped many flowering plants survive some of the most extreme environmental upheavals in Earth's history.
A carnivorous fruit fly living in bubbling African streams may sound like a fever dream. However, with the help of DNA analysis of a pinned insect from a museum in Zurich, researchers have managed to draw an evolutionary map of a mysterious species that has not been seen since 1981.