Origin of Life News
July 2, 2025
Top Headlines
June 3, 2025 — A new study has finally confirmed the theory that the cause of extraordinary global tremors in September -- October 2023 was indeed two mega tsunamis in Greenland that became trapped standing waves. Using a brand-new type of satellite altimetry, the ...
May 30, 2025 — A new species of velvet worm, Peripatopsis barnardi, represents the first ever species from the arid Karoo, which indicates that the area was likely historically more forested than at present. In the Cape Fold Mountains, we now know that every ...
May 30, 2025 — A new method could soon unlock the vast repository of biological information held in the proteins of ancient soft tissues. The findings could open up a new era for palaeobiological ...
May 29, 2025 — New techniques used to analyze soft tissue in dinosaur fossils may hold the key to new cancer discoveries. Researchers have analyzed dinosaur fossils using advanced paleoproteomic techniques, a method that holds promise for uncovering molecular data ...
May 29, 2025 — The fossils of ancient salamander-like creatures in Scotland are among the most well-preserved examples of early stem tetrapods -- some of the first animals to make the transition from water to land. Thanks to new research, scientists believe that ...
May 29, 2025 — Long considered a disease brought to the Americas by European colonizers, leprosy may actually have a much older history on the American continent. Scientists reveal that a recently identified second species of bacteria responsible for leprosy, ...
May 29, 2025 — A new study reveals that the aerobic nitrogen cycle in the ocean may have occurred about 100 million years before oxygen began to significantly accumulate in the atmosphere, based on nitrogen isotope analysis from ancient South African rock cores. ...
May 29, 2025 — Chemists have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth -- a key process in the origin of ...
May 28, 2025 — Researchers compared the whole genome sequence of two genetically distinct lineages of bed bug, and their findings indicate bed bugs may well be the first true urban ...
May 26, 2025 — A gene that regulates the development of roots in vascular plants is also involved in the organ development of liverworts -- land plants so old they don't even have proper roots. The discovery highlights the fundamental evolutionary dynamic of ...
May 23, 2025 — A new study uses metabolic profiling to uncover ancient knowledge systems behind therapeutic and psychoactive plant use in ancient ...
May 23, 2025 — A group of fossils of elasmosaurs -- some of the most famous in North America -- have just been formally identified as belonging to a 'very odd' new genus of the sea monster, unlike any previously ...
Latest Headlines
updated 9:47am EDT
June 29, 2025 — Footprints found in the ancient lakebeds of White Sands may prove that humans lived in North America 23,000 years ago — much earlier than previously believed. A new study using radiocarbon-dated ...
June 26, 2025 — Farming didn t emerge in the Andes due to crisis or scarcity it was a savvy and resilient evolution. Ancient diets remained stable for millennia, ...
June 26, 2025 — Experiments and simulations show Paleolithic paddlers could outwit the powerful Kuroshio Current by launching dugout canoes from northern Taiwan and ...
June 25, 2025 — The shift from lizard-like sprawl to upright walking in mammals wasn’t a smooth climb up the evolutionary ladder. Instead, it was a messy saga full of unexpected detours. Using new bone-mapping ...
June 23, 2025 — DNA from a skull found at Newgrange once sparked theories of a royal incestuous elite in ancient Ireland, but new research reveals no signs of such a ...
June 17, 2025 — A massive, extinct salamander with jaws like a vice once roamed ancient Tennessee and its fossil has just rewritten what we thought we knew about Appalachian amphibians. Named Dynamognathus ...
June 13, 2025 — Despite Earth's most devastating mass extinction wiping out over 80% of marine life and half of land species, a group of early reptiles called archosauromorphs not only survived but thrived, ...
June 10, 2025 — Neanderthals may have trekked thousands of miles across Eurasia much faster than we ever imagined. New computer simulations suggest they used river ...
June 9, 2025 — In a bold reimagining of Southeast Asia s prehistory, scientists reveal that the Philippine island of Mindoro was a hub of human innovation and ...
June 2, 2025 — Researchers have recreated the world's oldest synthetic pigment, called Egyptian blue, which was used in ancient Egypt about 5,000 years ...
Earlier Headlines
June 8, 2025 — In a paper published in National Science Review, a Chinese team of scientists highlights the discovery of well-preserved blue-stain fungal hyphae within a Jurassic fossil wood from northeastern ...
May 23, 2025 — Cold-adapted animals started to evolve 2.6 million years ago when the permanent ice at the poles became more prevalent. There followed a time when the continental ice sheets expanded and contracted ...
May 22, 2025 — Researchers have analyzed ancient DNA from Borrelia recurrentis, a type of bacteria that causes relapsing fever, pinpointing when it evolved to spread through lice rather than ticks, and how it ...
May 22, 2025 — Scientists have analyzed ancient DNA and compared more than 400 fossils from 17 natural history museums to figure out how and why extinct sloths got so ...
May 22, 2025 — A new study proves that a type of genetic element called 'introners' are the mechanism by which many introns spread within and between species, also providing evidence of eight instances in ...
May 21, 2025 — New research shows that dentine, the inner layer of teeth that transmits sensory information to nerves inside the pulp, first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient ...
May 20, 2025 — To better understand the circadian clock in modern-day cyanobacteria, a research team has studied ancient timekeeping systems. They examined the oscillation of the clock proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC ...
May 16, 2025 — New research from an international group looking at ancient sediment cores in the North Atlantic has for the first time shown a strong correlation between sediment changes and a marked period of ...
May 16, 2025 — Scientists have decoded the atomic structure of Photosystem I from a 3-billion-year-old cyanobacteria lineage, offering a unique look at early oxygen-producing photosynthesis. The ancient nanodevice, ...
May 15, 2025 — A groundbreaking international study has revealed that early Asians undertook humanity s longest known prehistoric migration walking more than 20,000 kilometers over thousands of years from North ...
May 15, 2025 — A dinosaur's 40-second journey more than 120 million years ago has been brought back to life by a research team using advanced digital modelling ...
May 14, 2025 — Scientists have found new evidence for how our fossil human relatives in South Africa may have used their hands. Researchers investigated variation in finger bone morphology to determine that South ...
May 14, 2025 — The origin of reptiles on Earth has been shown to be up to 40 million years earlier than previously thought -- thanks to evidence discovered at an Australian fossil site that represents a critical ...
May 14, 2025 — Scientists have now discovered the oldest ancestor for all the Australian tree frogs, with distant links to the tree frogs of South ...
May 14, 2025 — Archaeopteryx is the fossil that clearly demonstrated Darwin's views. It's the oldest known fossil bird, and it helps show that all birds -- including the ones alive today -- emerged from ...
May 9, 2025 — Scientists have discovered fossil evidence of an endangered, living tropical tree species. The unprecedented find was made in Brunei, a country on the large island of Borneo, and reveals a critical ...
May 9, 2025 — Modern HIV medicine is based on a common genetic mutation. Now, researchers have traced where and when the mutation arose -- and how it protected our ancestors from ancient ...
May 9, 2025 — The Arctic landscape during the Cretaceous Period may have been dominated by the dinosaurs, but the rivers and streams held something more familiar. Alaska's fresh waters 73 million years ago ...
May 7, 2025 — Life depends on genes being switched on and off at exactly the right time. Even the simplest living organisms do this, but usually over short distances across the DNA sequence, with the on/off switch ...
May 6, 2025 — Tyrannosaurus rex evolved in North America, but its direct ancestor came from Asia, crossing a land bridge connecting the continents more than 70 million years ago, according to a new ...
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Friday, May 23, 2025
Thursday, May 22, 2025
- Ancient DNA Used to Map Evolution of Fever-Causing Bacteria
- Scientists Have Figured out How Extinct Giant Ground Sloths Got So Big and Where It All Went Wrong
- 'Selfish' Genes Called Introners Proven to Be a Major Source of Genetic Complexity
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Friday, May 16, 2025
- Ancient Ocean Sediments Link Changes in Currents to Cooling of Northern Hemisphere 3.6 Million Years Ago
- Light-to-Electricity Nanodevice Reveals How Earth's Oldest Surviving Cyanobacteria Worked
Thursday, May 15, 2025
- Asians Made Humanity's Longest Prehistoric Migration and Shaped the Genetic Landscape in the Americas
- Digital Reconstruction Reveals 80 Steps of Prehistoric Life
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
- Dexterity and Climbing Ability: How Ancient Human Relatives Used Their Hands
- Fossil Tracks Show Reptiles Appeared on Earth Up to 40 Million Years Earlier
- Australia's Oldest Prehistoric Tree Frog Hops 22 Million Years Back in Time
- UV Light and CT Scans Helped Scientists Unlock Hidden Details in a Beautifully-Preserved Fossil Archaeopteryx
Friday, May 9, 2025
- First Fossil Evidence of Endangered Tropical Tree Discovered
- Researchers Map 7,000-Year-Old Genetic Mutation That Protects Against HIV
- New Ancient Fish Species Earliest Known Salmon Ancestor
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Monday, May 5, 2025
- A Fully Automated Tool for Species Tree Inference
- Genomic Survey Uncovers Evolutionary Origins of Secretoglobins
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Monday, April 28, 2025
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Monday, April 21, 2025
Friday, April 18, 2025
Monday, April 21, 2025
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Monday, April 14, 2025
Friday, April 11, 2025
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
- Ancient Tools from a South African Cave Reveal Connections Between Prehistoric People
- Mammoth Genetic Diversity Throughout the Last Million Years
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Monday, April 7, 2025
Thursday, April 3, 2025
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
- Footprints Reveal Prehistoric Scottish Lagoons Were Stomping Grounds for Giant Jurassic Dinosaurs
- First Ancient Genomes from the Green Sahara Deciphered
- Early Earth's First Crust Composition Discovery Rewrites Geological Timeline
Monday, March 31, 2025
Thursday, March 27, 2025
- A Genetic Tree as a Movie: Moving Beyond the Still Portrait of Ancestry
- Melting Ice, More Rain Drive Southern Ocean Cooling
- How Calcium May Have Unlocked the Origins of Life's Molecular Asymmetry
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
- Scientists Uncover Key Mechanism in Evolution: Whole-Genome Duplication Drives Long-Term Adaptation
- New Species Revealed After 25 Years of Study on 'inside Out' Fossil -- And Named After Discoverer's Mum
- Earliest Days of Earth's Formation
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Monday, March 24, 2025
- 5,700-Year Storm Archive Shows Rise in Tropical Storms and Hurricanes in the Caribbean
- Biologists Discover Ancient Neurohormone That Controls Appetite
Friday, March 21, 2025
Thursday, March 20, 2025
- From Dinosaurs to Birds: The Origins of Feather Formation
- Researchers Propose New Hypothesis for the Origin of Stone Tools
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Monday, March 17, 2025
- Without Oxygen: How Primordial Microbes Breathed
- Iguanas Floated One-Fifth of the Way Around the World to Colonize Fiji
Friday, March 14, 2025
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Monday, March 10, 2025
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
- 'Fluorescent Phoenix' Discovered With Persistence Rivaling Marie Curie's
- Earliest Evidence for Humans in Rainforests
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
- Humans Inherited Their Flexible Joints from the Earliest Jawed Fish
- Giant Ice Bulldozers: How Ancient Glaciers Helped Life Evolve
- The Galactic Journey of Our Solar System
- New Study Reveals Neanderthals Experienced Population Crash 110,000 Years Ago
Monday, February 24, 2025
- Origin and Diversity of Hun Empire Populations
- Research Provides New Detail on the Impact of Volcanic Activity on Early Marine Life
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Monday, February 17, 2025
Friday, February 14, 2025
- Research Reveals How Earth Got Its Ice Caps
- Does Planetary Evolution Favor Human-Like Life? Study Ups Odds We're Not Alone
- Ancient Egyptian Mummified Bodies Smell 'woody,' 'spicy' And 'sweet'
Thursday, February 13, 2025
- Evolution, Evolution, Evolution: How Evolution Got So Good at Evolving
- Birds Have Developed Complex Brains Independently from Mammals
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
- Outokumpu's Bedrock Reveals a Smelly Surprise
- New Study Unravels the History of the Largest Pastoral Population in Africa
Monday, February 10, 2025
- Anomaly in the Deep Sea
- Less, but More: A New Evolutionary Scenario Marked by Massive Gene Loss and Expansion
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
- The Early Roots of Carnival? Research Reveals Evidence of Seasonal Celebrations in Pre-Colonial Brazil
- Meteorite Discovery Challenges Long-Held Theories on Earth's Missing Elements
- Missing Link in Indo-European Languages' History Found
Monday, February 3, 2025
- New Research on Ancient Life Found in Yellowstone Hot Springs
- Life-Bearing Water Arrived on Earth Later Rather Than Sooner
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Monday, January 27, 2025
- How Tiny Algae Shaped the Evolution of Giant Clams
- Unveiling Japan's Geological History Through Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Deposits
- Preserving Asian Horseshoe Crab Populations Through Targeted Conservation Strategies
Friday, January 24, 2025
- Study Points to South America -- Not Mexico -- As Birthplace of Irish Potato Famine Pathogen
- Evolution Without Sex: How Mites Have Survived for Millions of Years