The evolutionary success of our species may have hinged on minute changes to our brain biochemistry after we diverged from the lineage leading to Neanderthals and Denisovans about half a million years ago 

Two of these tiny changes that set modern humans apart from Neanderthals and Denisovans affect the stability and genetic expression of the enzyme adenylosuccinate lyase, or ADSL. This enzyme is involved in the biosynthesis of purine, one of the fundamental building blocks of DNA, RNA, and other important biomolecules. In a study to be published in PNAS, researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan and the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany have discovered that these changes may play an important role in our behavior, contributing new pieces to the great puzzle of who we humans are and where we come from. “Through our study, we have gotten clues into the functional consequences of some of the molecular changes that set modern humans apart from our ancestors,” says first author Dr. Xiang-Chun Ju of the Human Evolutionary Genomics Unit at OIST.  

Scientists analyzed more than 4.3 million observations in the U.S. Midwest from 1992-2023 to characterize changes in butterfly biodiversity. Findings: No populations are increasing and many are failing. In PNAS. 

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital used structural biology approaches to gain insight into how sweet taste receptors detect sweeteners.

In a new study published in the BMC Biology, researchers in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, analyzed 156 limbs from 28 O. serratus fossil specimens to reconstruct the precise movement and function of these mysterious ancient arthropod appendages—shedding light on one of the planet’s earliest and most successful animals.

Scientists have been thinking about how new species evolve since Darwin wrote On The Origin of Species in 1859. The results presented here call into question some of the most common explanations of how species originate

A new analysis of the bite strength of 18 species of carnivorous dinosaurs shows that while the Tyrannasaurus rex skull was optimized for quick, strong bites like a crocodile, other giant, predatory dinosaurs that walked on two legs—including spinosaurs and allosaurs—had much weaker bites and instead specialized in slashing and ripping flesh. Reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on August 4, these findings demonstrate that meat-eating dinosaurs followed different evolutionary paths in terms of skull design and feeding style despite their similarly gigantic sizes.