Tag Archives: ancestor

Ostriches, emus, rheas and other large, flightless birds are found on six landmasses separated by oceans, but how they reached such far-apart places without the ability to fly has remained an enduring mystery. One idea was that the ancestors of this group of birds, known as paleognaths, just walked to those locations when most of the planet was harnessed together …

“Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.” Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA. A study suggests that this organism likely lived on Earth only 400 million years after its formation. Further analysis also …

In a new study published in the Journal of Human Evolution, a team of Chinese paleoanthropologists reports the discovery of 21 fossilized teeth in the Hualongdong cave in southeastern China. The remains, estimated to be about 300,000 years old, show an unexpected blend of archaic and modern human features, suggesting either an unknown human lineage or a complex case of …

All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA. A study suggests that this organism likely lived on Earth only 400 million years after its formation. Further analysis also shows that this life form likely sported an early immune system, which means it was probably fighting off viruses. Life on Earth had to …

“Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.” All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA. A study suggests that this organism likely lived on Earth only 400 million years after its formation. Further analysis also shows that this life form likely sported an early …

Researchers have named a bizarre, prehistoric species of whale discovered on a beach in Australia. Janjucetus dullardi “might have looked for all the world like some weird kind of mash-up between a whale, a seal, and a Pokémon,” according to Erich Fitzgerald, a senior paleontologist at Museums Victoria Research Institute who co-authored the paper on the discovery. Measuring less than …

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Long before whales were majestic, gentle giants, some of their prehistoric ancestors were tiny, weird and feral. A chance discovery of a 25 million-year-old fossil on an Australian beach has allowed paleontologists to identify a rare, entirely new species that could unlock mysteries of whale evolution. Researchers this week officially named Janjucetus dullardi, a cartoonish …

You say potato, I say tomato? Turns out one helped create the other: Natural interbreeding between wild tomatoes and potato-like plants in South America gave rise to the modern day spud around nine million years ago, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Cell. Co-author Loren Rieseberg, a professor at the University of British Columbia, told AFP …

When it comes to the senses, there could not be a greater difference between Friday night chips and juicy Mediterranean tomatoes. However, scientists have discovered that these two foods are not so far from each other after all. Landmark research has found the potato evolved from a tomato ancestor nearly 9 million years ago. Wild tomatoes, which grew in the …