Hacker News with Generative AI: Evolution

Mother's Curse (wikipedia.org)
In biology, mother's curse is an evolutionary effect that males inherit deleterious mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) mutations from their mother, while those mutations are beneficial, neutral or less deleterious to females.
Biology, Genetics, Evolution, Mitochondrial DNA
6 points by teleforce 37 days ago | 0 comments
Elephants evolved to beat cancer, and how we could too (newatlas.com)
Scientists have recently shed some light on exactly why elephants, one of the biggest animals on the planet, paradoxically experience unusually low rates of cancer.
Cancer, Evolution, Biology, Animals, Health
17 points by Brajeshwar 40 days ago | 6 comments
Ancient reptile footprints are rewriting the history of when animals evolved (apnews.com)
Canada is talking to the US about joining its ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system, Carney says
Evolution, Biology, Military, Politics, Defence
32 points by gmays 43 days ago | 8 comments
Williams Syndrome: The people who are too friendly (bbc.com)
People with Williams Syndrome treat strangers as their new best friends. Now the condition is giving clues to our evolutionary past – and what makes us human.
Genetics, Psychology, Social Behavior, Evolution
17 points by bookofjoe 45 days ago | 1 comments
Intelligence on Earth Evolved Independently at Least Twice (wired.com)
Humans tend to put our own intelligence on a pedestal. Our brains can do math, employ logic, explore abstractions, and think critically. But we can’t claim a monopoly on thought.
Intelligence, Evolution, Biology, Science
12 points by elisson22 46 days ago | 2 comments
Why Is the Kiwi's Egg So Big? (audubon.org)
The flightless kiwi is so unbirdlike that many biologists call it an “honorary mammal.”
Biology, Birds, New Zealand, Evolution
77 points by repost_bot 60 days ago | 54 comments
All roses were once yellow (phys.org)
Red roses, the symbol of love, were likely yellow in the past, indicates a large genomic analysis by researchers from Beijing Forestry University, China.
Genetics, Botany, Evolution, China, Research
48 points by gmays 60 days ago | 6 comments
Earth's oceans used to be green, and they could turn purple next (newatlas.com)
For ages, Earth has been known as a blue planet, a vision largely shaped by the vast oceans that cover three-quarters of its surface. But what if this wasn't always the case, and our oceans used to be green? That's the surprising claim in a new study published in Nature Geology & Evolution.
Earth Science, Oceans, Evolution, Climate Change
30 points by Brajeshwar 64 days ago | 3 comments
Are these chimps having a fruity booze-up in the wild? (arstechnica.com)
New data suggests that the human inclination toward feasting in groups is part of our deep evolutionary history.
Primate Behavior, Evolution, Social Behavior, Alcohol
11 points by PaulHoule 65 days ago | 3 comments
Magnetic Collapse: A Spur to Evolution? (centauri-dreams.org)
The sublime, almost fearful nature of deep time sometimes awes me even more than the kind of distances we routinely discuss in these pages.
Evolution, Science, Space, Time
9 points by JPLeRouzic 66 days ago | 0 comments
Bird Went Extinct and Then Evolved into Existence Again (vice.com)
The Aldabra white-throated rail, a flightless bird that lives on its namesake atoll in the Indian Ocean, doesn’t look like anything special at first glance. But the small bird has big bragging rights, because it has effectively evolved into existence twice after first going extinct some 136,000 years ago.
Evolution, Biology, Extinction, Birds
11 points by MrBuddyCasino 70 days ago | 3 comments
Chicken-or-egg evolutionary problem solved by missing link molecule (cosmosmagazine.com)
An accidental discovery could provide clues to a chicken-or-egg question which has puzzled scientists for decades: what came first – oxygen production by photosynthesis or oxygen consumption by aerobic metabolism?
Science, Biology, Evolution, Photosynthesis, Aerobic Metabolism
5 points by geox 73 days ago | 0 comments
Molecular clock: bacteria used oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis (phys.org)
Molecular clock analysis shows bacteria used oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis
Biology, Evolution, Science, Microbiology
13 points by PaulHoule 75 days ago | 3 comments
Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex (quantamagazine.org)
A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.
Physics, Cosmology, Entropy, Complexity, Evolution
149 points by konradx 78 days ago | 98 comments
In the evolution of life, did metabolism come first? (knowablemagazine.org)
Four billion years ago, our planet was water and barren rock. Out of this, some mighty complicated chemistry bubbled up, perhaps in a pond or a deep ocean vent. Eventually, that chemistry got wrapped in membranes, a primitive cell developed and life emerged from the ooze.
Evolution, Biology
5 points by rbanffy 79 days ago | 0 comments
A recent study suggests that insects branched out from crustaceans (smithsonianmag.com)
Shrimp look an awful lot like bugs. The exoskeletons, jointed legs and compound eyes of both groups of living things give them more than a passing resemblance to each other, so no wonder some people call shrimp-like crawfish “mudbugs,” and a tattoo reading “shrimps is bugs” became a viral meme for underscoring the resemblance. But the tattoo got the reality backwards. Shrimp are not bugs. Bugs—or, more properly, insects—are technically a form of crustacean.
Evolution, Biology, Entomology, Crustaceans, Insects
96 points by Carrok 80 days ago | 90 comments
Mammoth genetic diversity throughout the last million years (sciencedaily.com)
A new genomic study has uncovered long-lost genetic diversity in mammoth lineages spanning over a million years, providing new insights into the evolutionary history of these animals.
Genetics, Paleontology, Evolution, Genomics, Animals
23 points by docmechanic 82 days ago | 2 comments
Dire Wolves Were Not Wolves, New Genetic Clues Reveal (2021) (scientificamerican.com)
Genetics, Paleontology, Animals, Evolution, Science
9 points by stared 83 days ago | 1 comments
Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals (quantamagazine.org)
Humans tend to put our own intelligence on a pedestal. Our brains can do math, employ logic, explore abstractions and think critically. But we can’t claim a monopoly on thought. Among a variety of nonhuman species known to display intelligent behavior, birds have been shown time and again to have advanced cognitive abilities.
Intelligence, Evolution, Animals, Cognition, Birds
247 points by rbanffy 84 days ago | 184 comments
Bonobos use a kind of syntax once thought to be unique to humans (newscientist.com)
Bonobos combine their calls in a complex way that forms distinct phrases, a sign that this type of syntax is more evolutionarily ancient than previously thought.
Primates, Animal Behavior, Linguistics, Science, Evolution
192 points by docmechanic 84 days ago | 125 comments
Scientists uncover key mechanism in evolution: Whole-genome duplication drives (sciencedaily.com)
Sometimes, the most significant scientific discoveries happen by accident.
Evolution, Genetics, Biology, Scientific Discovery
79 points by docmechanic 93 days ago | 24 comments
Deadly bacteria have developed the ability to wipe out competitors (phys.org)
A drug-resistant type of bacteria that has adapted to health care settings evolved in the past several years to weaponize an antimicrobial genetic tool, eliminating its cousins and replacing them as the dominant strain.
Antibiotics, Bacteria, Science, Health Care, Evolution
5 points by zfg 100 days ago | 0 comments
When the Animals Went Electric (nautil.us)
What a superpower sense tells us about evolutionary creativity
Evolution, Animal Behavior, Neuroscience, Superpowers
10 points by dnetesn 104 days ago | 0 comments
Thrive is a free, open-source game about the evolution of life (github.com/Revolutionary-Games)
This is the code repository for Thrive. For more information, visit Revolutionary Games' Website.
Open Source, Games, Evolution, Biology
3 points by BSDobelix 105 days ago | 0 comments
Genomic study: our capacity for language emerged at least 135k years ago (phys.org)
It is a deep question, from deep in our history: when did human language as we know it emerge? A new survey of genomic evidence suggests our unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago. Subsequently, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ago.
Genomics, Language, Evolution, History, Science
113 points by wglb 106 days ago | 90 comments
Tiny changes in gene expression make big difference in eye size of fruit flies (phys.org)
An international team of scientists has discovered that tiny changes in the timing of the expression of a single gene can lead to big differences in eye size.
Genetics, Biology, Fruit Flies, Evolution
57 points by PaulHoule 109 days ago | 16 comments
The Prehistoric Psychopath (worksinprogress.co)
Life in the state of nature was pleasant, cooperative and longer than you might think. Most of our ancestors avoided conflict. But this made them vulnerable to a few psychopaths.
Human History, Psychology, Evolution
8 points by satvikpendem 109 days ago | 0 comments
A 62M-year-old skeleton sheds light on an enigmatic mammal (sciencedaily.com)
For more than 140 years, Mixodectes pungens, a species of small mammal that inhabited western North America in the early Paleocene, was a mystery.
Paleontology, Mammals, Science, Extinct Animals, Evolution
29 points by docmechanic 109 days ago | 9 comments
A longer, sleeker super predator: Megalodon's true form (news.ucr.edu)
The megalodon has long been imagined as an enormous great white shark, but new research suggests that perception is all wrong.
Paleontology, Sharks, Science, Evolution
4 points by gnabgib 111 days ago | 0 comments
Chimeric particles expand species boundaries in chromosomal island mobilization (biorxiv.org)
Some mobile genetic elements spread among unrelated bacterial species through unknown mechanisms.
Genetics, Microbiology, Evolution, Biology, Research
4 points by lawrenceyan 121 days ago | 0 comments