Sentences with phrase «evolutionary transition»

This year, evolutionary biologists figured out the mode and tempo of this spectacular evolutionary transition.

The type of functional flexibility they observed in bonobos could represent an important evolutionary transition from functionally fixed animal vocalisations towards flexible human vocalisations, which seems to have appeared some 6 - 10 million years ago in the shared common ancestor between humans and great apes.

The distinctly human ability for forceful precision (e.g. when turning a key) and power «squeeze» gripping (e.g. when using a hammer) is linked to two key evolutionary transitions in hand use: a reduction in arboreal climbing and the manufacture and use of stone tools.

Viruses also appear to be extremely ancient, may have been involved in the origin of life and have probably been involved in major evolutionary transitions on Earth.

«Our goal here was to understand the molecular underpinnings of an important evolutionary transition, not to create a «dino - chicken» simply for the sake of it,» said Bhullar, lead author of the study, published online May 12 in the journal Evolution.

«Two other evolutionary transitions vital to our understanding of the relationship between whales and artiodactyls beg for elucidation: the precise ancestry of hippopotami and the origin of artiodactyls themselves,» Kenneth D. Rose of Johns Hopkins University comments in a perspective article accompanying the Science report.

Recently, some prominent researchers have come round to the idea that hominins may have left their African cradle much earlier than we thought and undergone critical evolutionary transitions further north.

This is a schematic highlighting the possible evolutionary transitions in protein - coding genes underlying the prokaryote - to - eukaryote transition in light of the Lokiarchaeum genome.

«In this study, we found that independent evolutionary transitions in social life have independent genetic underpinnings.»

«These data suggests that the reason bee - to - bird evolutionary transitions are often accompanied by a floral shift to classic «bird» trait complexes is because bees have a particularly difficult time combining red with other sensory traits, including nectar rewards,» he says.

This crucial evolutionary transition is preserved in the fossilised remains of animals called stem tetrapods, which have some features of fish and some of four - legged animals.

The OIST Ecology and Evolution Unit has looked at the early evolutionary transition from sexual reproduction to clonal reproduction by studying a special case: the Little Fire Ant.

«This is the first example we know of that demonstrates developmental plasticity may have facilitated a large - scale evolutionary transition,» Hans Larsson of McGill University said in a press release.

Environmental fluctuations in redox may reinforce rather than hinder evolutionary transitions, such that variability in near surface oceanic oxygenation can promote morphologic evolution and novelty, followed by innovation, and diversification.

«Our goal here was to understand the molecular underpinnings of an important evolutionary transition, not to create a «dino - chicken» simply for the sake of it,» says Bhart - Anjan S. Bhullar in a news release.

Now a paleontologist at the University of Warsaw, he is building on his youthful explorations: Last year he discovered two sets of fossil footprints that add to our understanding of life's key evolutionary transitions.

Between every major evolutionary transition, there would have been an enormous number of events with some degree of power to deviate from the divine aim for it.

Archaeopteryx remains the oldest known bird fossil, not only documenting the evolutionary transition from reptiles to birds, but also confirming that modern birds are the direct descendants of carnivorous dinosaurs.

It also suggests how the evolutionary transition from two - to three - cone color vision might have come about.

The origin of these complex cell types has long been a mystery to the scientific community, but now researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have discovered a new group of microorganisms that represents a missing link in the evolutionary transition from simple to complex cells.

Now paleontologist Neil Shubin — discoverer of the «fishapod» Tiktaalik, whose fins with wrists and elbows illustrate an evolutionary transition between ancient fish and early land animals — leads a lively jaunt through the human body to get us in touch with our fishy (not to mention buggy, wormy, and yeasty) extended family.

With both primitive and more modern traits, it is a bridge between our genus and its ancestors and points to when and where that evolutionary transition took place.

«Researchers are interested in how the evolutionary transition occurred toward multi-cellularity; that is, how cooperation develops and single cells are not just interested in themselves.

The authors had two clearly stated goals: to provide a comprehensive, up - to - date overview of «the evolutionary transitions made by plants and animals as they moved from aquatic to terrestrial environments», and to place «this factual picture in a conceptual and theoretical framework».

Future research will investigate the causes of evolutionary transitions, such as diurnal activity, across Lepidoptera.

The implication is that the evolutionary transition from great apes to early hominins — species that share a common ancestor with humans and chimps — happened in Europe, not in Africa as generally believed.

The results, published in the journal Current Biology, identify a key point in the evolutionary transition from soft to hard bodies in early ancestors of arthropods, the group that contains modern insects, crustaceans and spiders.

«We're looking into the past at an evolutionary transition that was important for the origin of all animals,» explains Iñaki Ruiz - Trillo, an evolutionary biologist at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain.

Then again, judging by the oh's and ah's of the audience, the evolutionary transition from sea to land — full of expressive amphibian faces peering uncertainly from the muck — may have been a bigger hit.

«We're talking about an evolutionary transition that in some ways is as dramatic» as the evolution of flight itself, Clarke says.

When discussing the evolutionary transition between dinosaurs and birds (11 December 2010, p 36), surprisingly James O'Donoghue did not mention...