Origin of Life News

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Egyptians Drank Hallucinogenic Cocktails in Ancient Rituals, Study Confirms

Nov. 15, 2024 — Scholars for the first time identified chemical signatures of the components of a liquid concoction contained in a Bes mug. A new technique helped identify a sample flavored with honey, sesame seeds, pine nuts, licorice and grapes -- commonly used ...

Genetic Legacy of Jomon Hunter-Gatherers Linked to Increased BMI in Modern Japanese, Study Finds

Nov. 14, 2024 — New research exploring the roots of modern Japanese populations has linked the genetic signature of Jomon hunter-gatherers to a higher body mass index (BMI) among individuals, underlining that ...

On the Origin of Life: How the First Cell Membranes Came to Exist

Nov. 13, 2024 — Few questions have captivated humankind more than the origin of life on Earth. How did the first living cells come to exist? How did these early protocells develop the structural membranes necessary for cells to thrive and assemble into complex ...

A New Wrinkle in Turtles: Their Genomes Fold in a Unique Way, Researchers Find

Nov. 11, 2024 — A study described the three-dimensional architecture of turtle genomes, which fold in a configuration unlike any other animal observed so ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:26pm EST

The Egg or the Chicken? An Ancient Unicellular Says Egg

Nov. 6, 2024 — Chromosphaera perkinsii is a single-celled species discovered in 2017 in marine sediments around Hawaii. The first signs of its presence on Earth have been dated at over a billion years, well before ...

Evolutionary Paths Vastly Differ for Birds, Bats

Nov. 1, 2024 — New research has found that, unlike birds, the evolution of bats' wings and legs is tightly coupled, which may have prevented them from filling as many ecological niches as ...

How Life Began on Earth: Modeling Earth's Ancient Atmosphere

Oct. 31, 2024 — This model reveals how vastly different the atmosphere was on ancient Earth, and how life may have first ...

Ancient DNA Brings to Life History of the Iconic Aurochs, Whose Tale Is Intertwined With Climate Change and Human Culture

Oct. 30, 2024 — Geneticists have deciphered the prehistory of aurochs -- the animals that were the focus of some of the most iconic early human art -- by analyzing ...

Fossil Hunters Strike Gold With New Species

Oct. 29, 2024 — Paleontologists have identified fossils of an ancient species of bug that spent the past 450 million years covered in fool's gold in central New York. The new species, Lomankus edgecombei, is a ...

Ancient Viral DNA in the Human Genome Linked to Multiple Sclerosis and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Oct. 21, 2024 — New research has revealed a connection between ancient viral DNA embedded in the human genome and the genetic risk for two major diseases that affect ...

'Drowning Continent': Western Australian Coastline's Complex History

Oct. 22, 2024 — A study investigating the complex evolution of two iconic Western Australian landmarks, has traced their transformation over thousands of years and offers a glimpse into their future. Researchers ...

What Happened When a Meteorite the Size of Four Mount Everests Hit Earth?

Oct. 21, 2024 — Scientists paint a compelling picture of what happened the day the S2 meteorite crashed into Earth 3.26 billion years ...

Turtle Genome Provides New Clues on the Evolution of Vertebrates

Oct. 21, 2024 — Scientists have generated the genome assemblies of two hidden-neck turtles, unpublished until now. The results, which revealed a new three-dimensional structure of the genome within the phylogenetic ...

Creating a Simplified Form of Life

Oct. 21, 2024 — How can lifeless molecules come together to form a living ...

Why Do We Love Carbs? The Origins Predate Agriculture and Maybe Even Our Split from Neanderthals

Oct. 17, 2024 — A new study reveals how the duplication of the salivary amylase gene may not only have helped shape human adaptation to starchy foods, but may have occurred as far back as more than 800,000 years ...

Adaptability of Trees Persists After Millions of Years of Climate Change

Oct. 14, 2024 — Seven of the most common forest trees in Europe have been shown to be able to shelter their genetic diversity from major shifts in environmental conditions. This is despite their ranges having shrunk ...

How Did the Building Blocks of Life Arrive on Earth?

Oct. 11, 2024 — Researchers have used the chemical fingerprints of zinc contained in meteorites to determine the origin of volatile elements on Earth. The results suggest that without 'unmelted' asteroids, ...

2-Billion-Year-Old Rock Home to Living Microbes

Oct. 3, 2024 — Pockets of microbes have been found living within a sealed fracture in 2-billion-year-old rock. The rock was excavated from the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa, an area known for its rich ...

World's Oldest Cheese Reveals Origins of Kefir

Sep. 25, 2024 — Scientists successfully extracted and analyzed DNA from ancient cheese samples found alongside the Tarim Basin mummies in China, dating back approximately 3,600 years. The research suggests a new ...

Unveiling Ancient Life: New Method Sheds Light on Early Cellular and Metabolic Evolution

Sep. 24, 2024 — Analyzing fossils can be difficult -- especially when they're so small that they can only be seen with a microscope. Researchers have now come up with a ...

Scientists Turn to Human Skeletons to Explore Origins of Horseback Riding

Sep. 20, 2024 — A new, wide-ranging exploration of human remains casts doubt on a long-standing theory in archaeology known as the Kurgan hypothesis -- which, among other claims, suggests that humans first ...

Researchers Publish Breakthrough Study on How New Genes Evolve

Sep. 19, 2024 — Findings suggest that new genes can form by repurposing fragments of ancestral genes while incorporating entirely new coding regions (the protein-coding parts of the DNA). This innovative concept ...

New Research Reenvisions Earth's Mantle as a Relatively Uniform Reservoir

Sep. 19, 2024 — Lavas from hotspots - -whether erupting in Hawaii, Samoa or Iceland -- likely originate from a worldwide, uniform reservoir in Earth's mantle, according to an evaluation of volcanic ...

Insights Into South African Population History from 10,000-Year-Old Human DNA

Sep. 19, 2024 — Ancient DNA has provided spectacular insights into human history, particularly in Europe and Asia, where researchers have reconstructed the genomes of thousands of people. However, fewer than two ...

Explaining Dramatic Planet-Wide Changes After World's Last 'Snowball Earth' Event

Sep. 18, 2024 — Some of the most dramatic climatic events in our planet's history are 'Snowball Earth' events that happened hundreds of millions of years ago, when almost the entire planet was encased ...

Genomics Reveals Sled Dogs' Siberian Lineage

Sep. 16, 2024 — New research examines thousands of years of Arctic sled dog ancestry and reveals when and how Siberian and Alaskan sled dogs' DNA ...

New Fossil Fish Species Scales Up Evidence of Earth's Evolutionary March

Sep. 12, 2024 — Climate change and asteroids are linked with animal origin and extinction -- and plate tectonics also seems to play a key evolutionary role, 'groundbreaking' new fossil research reveals. ...

The Neanderthals May Have Become Extinct Because of Their Isolated Lifestyle

Sep. 12, 2024 — Neanderthal remains recently discovered in a cave in France support well-known theory of why the Neanderthals became extinct, researchers behind a new study ...

Ancient DNA from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Refutes Best-Selling Population Collapse Theory

Sep. 11, 2024 — Rapa Nui (Easter Island) with its gigantic statues and treeless landscape has fascinated researchers for centuries. A new genetic study disproves the popular theory that the Rapanui population ...

Iron Was Life's 'Primeval' Metal

Sep. 9, 2024 — Every living organism uses tiny quantities of metals to carry out biological functions, including breathing, transcribing DNA, turning food into energy, or any number of essential life ...

With AI, Extreme Microbe Reveals How Life's Building Blocks Adapt to High Pressure

Sep. 9, 2024 — An assist from a Google Artificial Intelligence tool has helped scientists discover how the proteins of a heat-loving microbe respond to the crushing conditions of the planet's deepest ocean ...

Agriculture Accelerated Human Genome Evolution to Capture Energy from Starchy Foods

Sep. 4, 2024 — Scientists have suspected that modern humans have more genes to digest starch than our hunter-gatherer ancestors, but the amylase locus of the genome is hard to study. Researchers have now developed ...

Genomic Dark Matter Solves Butterfly Evolutionary Riddle

Aug. 30, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered a surprising genetic mechanism that influences the vibrant and complex patterns on butterfly wings. The team discovered that an RNA molecule, rather than a protein as ...

Land-Sea 'Tag-Team' Devastated Ocean Life Millions of Years Ago Reveal Scientists

Aug. 29, 2024 — A 'tag-team' between the oceans and continents millions of years ago devastated marine life and altered the course of evolution on Earth, according to a new study. Scientists say a string ...