Why Were Sails So Popular 300 Million Years Ago

Very recommendable!

(1) Why Were Sails So Popular 300 Million Years Ago - YouTube

A study of more than 1,100 mammal and bird species found females outlast males in 72% of mammal species. Really!

Amazing stuff! However, this research is dated, published in October 2025!

" ... In birds, it’s the reverse."

"Females, whether they be human or some other type of mammal, like primates or even whales, tend to outlive men by an average of 5.4 years. ..."

"To the point

• Mammals vs birds: Among the 1,176 species studied, female mammals live on average 13 percent longer than males, while among birds, males live about five percent longer than females.
• Mating strategies play a role: In species with strong competition for mates – as is the case with most mammals – males die earlier. In monogamous species, such as many birds, males often live longer.
• Findings from zoos: Sex differences are more pronounced in wild populations than in zoos. This suggests that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the discrepancy in life expectancy.

...

An international team ... conducted the most comprehensive analysis of sex differences in lifespan across mammals and birds to date.  ...

Across mammals, females usually live longer—for instance, in baboons and gorillas females often outlive males.

Yet this pattern is not universal: in many birds, insects, and reptiles, males are the longer-lived sex.

One genetic explanation, the heterogametic sex hypothesis, points to differences in sex chromosomes. In mammals, females have two X chromosomes, while males have only one X and one Y (making them the heterogametic sex). ...

Still, there was remarkable variation with many exceptions. “Some species showed the opposite of the expected pattern,” ... “For example, in many birds of prey, females are both larger and longer-lived than males. So sex chromosomes can only be part of the story.” ...

In addition to genetics, reproductive strategies also play a role. Through sexual selection, males in particular develop conspicuous characteristics such as colorful plumage, weapons, or large body size, which increase reproductive success but can shorten lifespan.

The new study supports this assumption: In polygamous mammals with strong competition, males generally die earlier than females.

Many birds, on the other hand, are monogamous, which means that competitive pressure is lower and males often live longer.

Overall, the differences were smallest in monogamous species, while polygamy and pronounced size differences were associated with a more pronounced advantage for females. ...

Parental care also plays a role. The researchers found evidence that the sex that invests more in raising offspring—in mammals, this is often the females—tends to live longer. In long-lived species such as primates, this is likely to be a selective advantage: females survive until their offspring are independent or sexually mature. 

Zoo life reduces—but does not erase—lifespan gaps

A long-standing idea is that environmental pressures—such as predation, pathogens, or harsh climates—drive the observed gaps between males and females. To test this, the researchers turned to zoo populations, where such pressures are largely absent. They found that lifespan gaps persisted even under these protected conditions.

Comparing zoo and wild populations showed that the gaps were often smaller in zoos but rarely disappeared—mirroring the human case, where advances in medicine and living conditions have narrowed but not eliminated the lifespan gap.

The findings suggest that sex differences in lifespan are deeply rooted in evolutionary processes—shaped by sexual selection and parental investment and that genetic differences in the sex determination system may also play a role. ..."

From the abstract:

"Across human cultures and historical periods, women, on average, live longer than men, a pattern best understood from a comparative evolutionary perspective. Here, we analyzed adult life expectancy in 528 mammal and 648 bird species in zoos. Like humans, 72% of mammals exhibited a female life expectancy advantage, while 68% of birds showed a male advantage, as expected from the harmful effects of sex chromosomes described by the heterogametic sex hypothesis.

Yet, sex differences varied widely. 

In zoos, we found strong evidence that this variation generally correlated with both the mating system and sexual size dimorphism.

Although with weaker evidence, the patterns remained consistent in populations from the wild, with an even larger effect of the mating system.

Thus, even in zoos, where environmental pressures are largely reduced, precopulatory sexual selection seems to play a fundamental role in shaping sex differences in life expectancy in mammals and birds."

Tuesday, September 1, 2026 - Join The Flyover

Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?

Why women live longer than men - evolutionary insights on longevity (original news release, October 2025)

Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds (open access) "Study traces the evolutionary roots of the lifespan gap between women and men"

Tying RNA into many pseudoknots using AI

Amazing stuff! Just a charming exercise or toy academic experiments? Maybe not.

"... Another kind of molecule is employed by cells for a staggering variety of odd jobs: RNA. And determining how sequences of these nucleic acids bend and loop has proven to be a much more formidable challenge.

Especially tricky to predict are RNA pseudoknots: strands that fold and connect in complex ways ... It was precisely because of this knotty problem that a team of researchers tested the latest RNA-designing AIs by asking them to create molecules that fold into 57 pseudoknot structures. Remarkably, the platforms came up with properly folding sequences for 55 of them. ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

RNA molecules can fold into intricate three-dimensional shapes that drive much of their biology, but designing new structured RNAs from scratch has remained out of reach.

Townley et al. show that complex RNA structures called pseudoknots can now be designed reliably using artificial intelligence (AI).

In a year-long competition on the citizen science platform Eterna, AI methods solved more than 95% of 57 design challenges, matching the performance of expert human players ... 

Cryo–electron microscopy revealed that the molecules folded into entirely new three-dimensional architectures, sometimes featuring intricate interactions that the AI had not been instructed to build. RNA design has thus entered the deep-learning era. ...

Abstract

RNA design has been hindered by the limited accuracy of three-dimensional (3D) structure prediction. In this study, we show that intricate RNA structures can be generated with current deep learning tools through accurate de novo design of pseudoknot secondary structures.

In an Eterna competition involving 57 pseudoknots, generative artificial intelligence (AI) methods matched experienced human designers in solving most blind challenges, evaluated by single nucleotide–resolution chemical mapping, compensatory mutagenesis, and cryo–electron microscopy.

AI-generated molecules with accurate secondary structures formed well-ordered 3D folds stabilized by noncanonical tertiary interactions not modeled during design.

Success was guided by an RNet foundation model trained on prior chemical mapping data, suggesting that some difficult RNA design tasks may be tractable without first solving RNA 3D structure prediction."

ScienceAdviser

OpenKnot (Eterna competition) "Many important biological processes depend on RNAs that form pseudoknots, and they are among the most conserved structures in evolutionary history. However, scientists still have much to learn about their properties, structure, and functions."

RNet: a network strategy to predict RNA binding preferences (open access)

De novo design of RNA pseudoknots with deep learning (no public access)

De novo design of RNA pseudoknots with deep learning (preprint, open access)

Figure 2 The workflow of RNet.

(A) RNA native structures or 

(B) simulation trajectories are transformed into networks. 

(C) A machine learning-based algorithm decomposes the local and global network properties to identify binding sites.

(D) A distance-based dynamical graph algorithm can accurately describe the binding dynamical motions.

(E, F) Local and Global network properties.

(G) The diagram of the DDNC.

Some of the RNA pseudoknots

Fig 4 Cryo-electron microscopy of AI-designed pseudoknotted RNA.

(A) Secondary structure of Kissing Multiloops (target P20 in Round 3), colored by stem.

(B) AlphaFold 3 3D informed secondary structure and predicted model, colored by stem.

(C-E) For the tested designs from (C) Struct2SeQ-SHAPE, 

(D) MPNN-fixbb, and

(E) gRNAde, cryo-EM derived secondary structures (top), cryo-EM maps (unsharpened) and fitted coordinates, colored by stem (bottom), show high accuracy in recovering the target pseudoknot secondary structure while also highlighting distinct topologies from AlphaFold 3 prediction and noncanonical interactions (insets under (D) and (E)).

Key brain circuit regulating the entry into hibernation found at last

Amazing stuff!

Notice here the emphasis is on entry into hibernation not hibernation in general.

Notice Google Search was not able to find a news release regarding this discovery neither did the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research publish one although many of the authors of this study are affiliated with the WI. That is disappointing.

"... Now, in a preprint posted on bioRxiv, researchers studying hibernating Syrian hamsters have pinpointed for the first time a brain circuit that regulates an animal’s entry into hibernation. The results reveal a “key, really, in the network” and provide “more solid [evidence] than anything we had before” of an ancient hibernation circuit within the mammalian brain ..."

From the abstract:

"Evolution of seasonal hibernation has enabled mammals to survive harsh conditions by entering a state of prolonged hypometabolism and hypothermia with body temperatures as low as 0-4°C1–6.

Despite decades of physiological studies, the genetic tools to study hibernation have remained limited and the mechanisms that induce hibernation entry are still unknown.

Focusing on the brain, we map state-dependent neuronal activity across the hibernation cycle in Syrian hamsters and identify the hypothalamic anterior preoptic area (aPOA) as a key regulator of hibernation entry.

Single-nucleus RNA and chromatin profiling provided a map of neuronal populations present in the hamster POA and enabled the discovery and design of an enhancer AAV that selectively targets hibernation-associated aPOA subpopulations.

Using this genetic approach, we show that Samd3-positive aPOA glutamatergic neurons are necessary for entry into hibernation and that their activation is sufficient to induce a prolonged hypothermic state with associated nesting behavior.

Together, we identify the first neuronal population that controls entry into hibernation, opening new avenues for investigating and manipulating the metabolic and physiological mechanisms underlying this extreme state of “suspended animation” and its potential applications in aging and disease."

Key brain circuit regulating hibernation found at last | Science | AAAS

Preoptic Neurons that Control Entry into Hibernation

Fig. 2: Identification of anterior preoptic area activity as necessary for deep torpor entry.

The Flat Side of Evolution: Even When Multiple Evolutionary Paths Are Equally Advantageous, the Choice Among Them Is Not Random

Amazing stuff! A mathematical study of biological evolution. This work is highly theoretical and model based.

Caveat the study could have been driven by strong presumption to model the subject as a complex manifold with curved and flatter areas. So I am a little skeptical whether this study is not about reality, but a statistical modeling exercise.

"A surprising discovery by Technion researchers sheds new light on the dynamics of evolution. .. 

the study shows that when an organism has several evolutionary paths available with equal fitness, the path it follows is not necessarily chosen at random. ...

organisms sometimes face multiple evolutionary trajectories that all yield the same level of fitness. This raises the question of how evolution selects among these paths of equivalent fitness. ...

researchers found that the choice is not random. Rather than wandering aimlessly, populations deterministically drift toward flatter regions of the evolutionary landscape, where an organism’s traits are more robust to mutations and other perturbations. In other words, when fitness is equal, evolution tends to favor directions that confer greater robustness and tolerance to change, properties that themselves provide a survival advantage. ...

The findings suggest that biological robustness and resilience to disruption can emerge spontaneously through evolutionary dynamics, even in the absence of direct selection favoring these traits. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

Evolutionary dynamics selects more fit phenotypes over others. But fitness landscapes are complex and high dimensional, with continuous manifolds of practically identical high fitness.

Intuitively, one may imagine that evolution then proceeds to wander randomly among these degenerate states; we here show that this is generally not so.

On smooth manifolds of equal fitness, an implicit bias appears, directing evolving populations deterministically toward flatter regions.

This bias emerges from interaction between population variability and landscape geometry.

The effect has analogs in other contexts of stochastic dynamics, such as Langevin dynamics in an energy landscape and neural networks optimizing a loss function. Most importantly, it has implications on how we view evolved populations and how we interpret their observed properties.

Abstract

Degeneracy—the multiplicity of phenotypes with equal fitness—is a prevalent feature of biological systems. Such degeneracy is often associated with neutral evolution, under the assumption that adaptive dynamics on degenerate fitness manifolds is random and lacks direction.

Here we show that this is not generally the case. Using a minimal model of evolutionary dynamics on smooth degenerate fitness landscapes, we demonstrate that stochastic mutation–selection dynamics induce a directional drift on manifolds of optimal fitness toward regions of reduced curvature.

This drift arises from an interaction between population variability and landscape curvature: Curvature shapes phenotypic variation, which in turn biases evolutionary exploration even when fitness gradients vanish.

As a result evolution exhibits an implicit bias, preferentially selecting flat and robust regions of the degenerate fitness manifolds, without explicit optimization for these properties.

Interestingly, similar flatness-seeking implicit biases have been discovered in other stochastic optimization algorithms; here we reveal their different underlying mechanisms despite similar outcome, demonstrating the unique properties of evolutionary dynamics.

Our results highlight a general mechanism by which degeneracy shapes long-term evolutionary outcomes, affecting our interpretation of phenotypic variability, robustness, and neutrality in high-dimensional biological systems."

The Flat Side of Evolution: Even When Multiple Evolutionary Paths Are Equally Advantageous, the Choice Among Them Is Not Random - הטכניון-מכון טכנולוגי לישראל

Evolution on degenerate fitness landscapes is not random: Curvature drives directional drift (no public access)

Evolution on degenerate fitness landscapes is not neutral: curvature drives directional bias (preprint, open access)

Fig. 1 Evolution on degenerate landscapes is not neutral. ... 

Fig. 4 Evolutionary steady-state distributions compared to other stochastic dynamics.

(a) Evolutionary Dynamics ...

b) Gradient Langevin Dynamics ...

(c) Shift model approximating Stochastic Gradient Ascent ...

Grasses have doubled pathways to synthesize lignin and starch

Amazing stuff!

"... Some of this success stems from grasses’ turbocharged growth: The plants can produce both energy-rich starch and structurally supportive lignin through two different metabolic pathways apiece, allowing them to grow faster and taller than their competitors. But researchers never knew how and when these innovations sprouted.

In a new Science study, botanists analyzed the genomes of the grass family’s closest relatives to reveal the evolutionary history of grasses’ key innovations. They found that the doubled starch production pathway was truly unique to grasses, having resulted from a previously documented whole-genome duplication event that also instilled the plants with some of their other world-conquering traits. This duplication “ likely gave a competitive advantage to grasses to grow in open habitat, where a lot of plants would love to grow because of all the sun,” ... 

By contrast, their sister groups had only one strategy to produce starch, restricting them to slow growth in the shade of their fast-rising relatives.

In addition, both grasses and related plants can also make lignin from two different precursor molecules, indicating that a separate gene duplication gave rise to the dual pathway before grasses split into their own lineage 100 million years ago. The researchers were able to track the specific genetic causes of the doubled route, potentially allowing them to introduce the mutation into other plants to help produce crops and feedstocks for bioenergy."

"One hundred million years ago, long before human intervention, ancestors of grasses, like wheat, rice and maize generated “bypasses” of chemical pathways that are used to create two critical compounds: lignin and starch. These more efficient pathways could explain why grass plants are so successful in nature and agriculture, according to a new paper recently published ...

Just as scientists use the chimpanzee’s genome as a comparison tool to study how humans evolved, Maeda’s group and their collaborators  ... turned to one of the closest relatives of grasses, Joinvillea ascendens. 

This long-leafed plant is found in wet forests of the South Pacific islands and grows much more slowly than many grasses. ..."

"... The researchers then mapped the genome of Joinvillea and three related species. Comparing the thousands of genes in these genomes revealed that, unlike grasses, Joinvillea has only one pathway to create starch.

“We knew that a common ancestor of all grasses doubled its gene content through a whole genome duplication,” ... “Some of the duplicated genes then enabled the evolution of an additional starch synthesis pathway, or a bypass route, which emerged in an early common ancestor of all grasses.”

As a result ... grasses are able to produce twice the amount of starch relative to Joinvillea and all other non-grass plants. ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

Grasses include many economically important food crops and function as primary producers in diverse ecosystems. They also exhibit distinctive metabolic traits, such as the ability to synthesize starch in both plastids and cytosol and the synthesis of lignin from both phenylalanine and tyrosine.

However, the evolutionary origin of these traits has been unclear.

Takeda-Kimura et al. sequenced the genomes from grass sister clades and found that although some cytosolic starch synthesis genes emerged within grasses, a key plastid membrane transporter predates their evolution.

An earlier tandem duplication event predating a grass-specific whole-genome duplication gave rise to the bifunctional phenylalanine/tyrosine ammonia lyase, enabling dual lignin biosynthesis in grasses. ...

Structured Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The grass family (Poaceae) includes foundational primary producers in global ecosystems and economically important crops. Rice, wheat, and maize account for more than 40% of caloric intake for humans, and sugarcane, sorghum, and bamboo make abundant sugars and lignocellulosic biomass for renewable bioenergy and biomaterial production. Their genome assemblies have advanced our understanding of critical traits in agriculturally and ecologically important grass species. However, we still lack chromosomal assemblies for their closest relatives, which diverged from grass progenitors more than 100 million years ago, before the rho whole-genome duplication (ρWGD) in the ancestor of all grasses. This gap limits our understanding of how gene and genome duplications contributed to evolutionary innovations that define the grass lineage.

RATIONALE

This study generated reference-quality genomes for Joinvillea ascendens and Ecdeiocolea monostachya, which represent the sister lineage to all grasses, along with Pharus latifolius and Typha latifolia, which represent sister lineages to core grasses and all other members of the order Poales, respectively. Using these new genomic resources, we traced the evolutionary history of two distinctive metabolic traits of grasses: dual starch and lignin biosynthetic pathways. These grass-specific metabolic innovations contribute to the starch-rich endosperm of cereals and substantial lignin deposition in the vasculatures and fibers of grasses.

RESULTS

In this study, the new high-quality genome assemblies and annotations enabled comparative genomic analyses to place the timing of the ρWGD event just after the divergence of ancestral lineages leading to the grasses and their sister clade, including Joinvilleaceae and Ecdeiocoleaceae. Phylogenetic and molecular evolutionary analyses of more than 20 gene families involved in starch biosynthesis across many Poaceae and Poales species revealed that ρWGD contributed to the duplication of several of these genes, which now support cytosolic starch biosynthesis in grass endosperms. By contrast, genome comparisons and biochemical analyses of the lignin biosynthesis pathway revealed that an earlier tandem duplication of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) gave rise to phenylalanine/tyrosine ammonia lyase (PTAL) before the ρWGD and the origin of grasses, enabling grasses to synthesize lignin and other phenylpropanoid compounds from two aromatic amino acid precursors, phenylalanine and tyrosine. Precise determination of the timing of the plant PTAL evolution, combined with site-directed mutagenesis and x-ray crystal structural analyses, further identified two key residues, Ile112 and His140, that are responsible for the neofunctionalization of plant PAL into PTAL, providing a promising gene-editing strategy to enhance diverse phenylpropanoid production in plants.

CONCLUSION

Our integrated genomic, biochemical, and structural analyses, supported by robust phylogenetic resolution of grasses and their relatives, have unveiled the evolutionary history and molecular basis of key metabolic innovations predating the emergence of grasses. Our findings highlight critical roles for both WGDs and tandem gene duplications as drivers of evolutionary innovation. The nonmodel, noncrop Poales reference genomes generated for this study now offer valuable resources for dissecting the diverse and complex traits that contribute to the ecological and economic importance of grasses. The evolutionary basis of grass-specific traits will inform efforts to conserve grass-dominated ecosystems and accelerate breeding and engineering of cereals and other grass crops for sustainable production of food, feed, bioenergy, and biomaterials."

ScienceAdviser

Molecular “bypasses” improve grass plants’s synthesis of lignin and starch, laying the early groundwork for evolutionary success (original news release)

Grass plant ancestors evolved metabolic pathway to ecological success (original news release)

Genomes of Poaceae relatives reveal key metabolic innovations preceding the evolution of grasses (no public access)

Genomes of Poaceae sisters reveal key metabolic innovations preceding the evolution of grasses (preprint, open access, published already in December 2024 and never updated recently)

Metabolic innovations that predate the origin of grasses.

Fig. 1: Sequencing genomes of Poaceae sisters to trace the evolutionary history of grass metabolic innovations.

Fig. 2. Alteration of starch and fatty acid biosynthesis during the grass evolution.

What Drove Life Into The Trees during evolution?

Recommendable!

The host's silver shining nose ring is a little distracting! 😊

(1) What Drove Life Into The Trees? - YouTube

What Helped Mammals Survive the Asteroid Impact?

Recommendable!

(518) What Helped Mammals Survive the Asteroid Impact? - YouTube

Did poop/gut evolve with helped fuel the Cambrian explosion?

Amazing stuff! How did bowel movement and excrement develop in the first place? Still an open question, I believe.

One animal's poop is another animal's treasure!

"The driving force behind this biological big bang, they argue in a recent Trends in Ecology & Evolution review paper, just might have been feces.

While many early animals had already appeared in the fossil record during the preceding Ediacaran period, the Cambrian explosion marked the emergence of animal guts, which naturally produced a whole bunch of animal poop. Even so, fossilized turds—known as coprolites—from this time period are hard to come by, and those that are unearthed tend not to attract much attention. Many are left to gather dust in archives, ... or simply abandoned at the dig site.

For the new study, Kimmig and co-author Russell Bicknell analyzed coprolites recovered from more than 35 deposits around the globe, all dating back to before and during the Cambrian explosion. The prehistoric poo came in all shapes and sizes, from microscopic pellets to coprolites measuring several centimeters long and packed with crushed shells and other bits of undigested food. Some had dissolved upon striking the seafloor, creating something evocatively referred to as an “exploded fecal carpet.” (Maybe those marine critters should have laid off the iceberg lettuce...)

The researchers discovered that, as the Cambrian progressed, animal dung became larger, more common, and more complex, reflecting the development of more sophisticated digestive systems. As more and more of this excrement accumulated, the study authors reason, it would have carried organic matter and valuable nutrients from the rich shallows down into the deep ocean, potentially making these environments more habitable. “Together, these fossils show animals were beginning to process and then redistribute organic matter using entirely novel pipelines ,” ... Such a “fecal revolution,” they explain, may have set the stage for an eruption of new life. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

The ‘Cambrian Radiation’ comprises the rapid diversification of marine organisms and ecological niches during the Ediacaran to Cambrian Periods. It is also the time during which animals with guts first appear. The appearance of guts, in turn, leads to fecal matter, fossils of which are preserved as coprolites.

Fecal matter is rarely preserved in the Cambrian. However, in a few assemblages, the diversity and development of fecal matter are observed. There was little fecal matter available at the onset of the Cambrian, while larger and more diverse fecal matter became available by the middle Cambrian.

We assess the effect that increased availability of fecal matter had on deeper water environments and how this made such environments habitable for Cambrian organisms.

Combining these observations with data on digestive tracts and biogeochemistry of nutrient cycling in the Cambrian demonstrates that fecal matter played a significant role in driving the Cambrian Radiation.

Abstract

Coprolites—fossil material extruded from an animal’s digestive system—represent a rare insight into trophic interactions in deep time. However, while the first animals appeared about 600 million years ago, the first coprolites are only observed in the earliest Cambrian.

Conversely, in modern oceans, fecal pellets are an important part of the particulate organic carbon in the water column and the global flux of organic carbon to deep water.

In this review, we analyze the impact of the advent of fecal matter on the Cambrian Radiation by examining coprolites, analyzing animal biology, and contextualizing this through the role of fecal pellets in the oceanic nutrient cycle. We illustrate the central position of coprolites in driving the Cambrian Radiation."

ScienceAdviser

On the origin of feces: how animal poo drove Earth’s greatest evolutionary event

How an ‘explosion of excrement’ changed Earth's ecosystems forever

The Cambrian fecal revolution: Fueling the Cambrian Radiation (no public access)

A curious collection of Cambrian coprolites (fossilized poop)

Life During the Apocalypse (mass extinction)

Recommendable!

(624) Life During the Apocalypse - YouTube

Birdsong and whale song show patterns similar to human language and is unconsciously learnt as babies

Amazing stuff!

"An international team of researchers has uncovered a previously undetected structure in the birdsong of Bengalese finches that has the same statistical patterns found in human languages. ...

The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, build on the team's previous discovery that humpback whales also rely on a similar systematic structure. ..."

From the abstract:

"All languages have statistically coherent subsequences (e.g., words) whose frequency distribution follows a power law. 

These properties facilitate language learning in humans, making them good candidates for arising through cultural transmission as a way to help faithful transmission across generations.

Recently, both properties were found in whale song, which is also culturally transmitted, leading to the strong prediction that they should be found wherever complex sequential signaling is culturally transmitted.

Here, we use the same tools used to analyze human data and whale song to reveal that culturally transmitted Bengalese finch song also has statistically coherent subsequences whose distribution follows a power law.

We additionally show that statistical coherence increases over development, but the power law is present throughout, suggesting that it reflects a fundamental principle of learned representations.

Finding these parallels between evolutionarily distant species illustrates the importance of cultural transmission in shaping communication and suggests that core properties of language arise through convergent evolution."

Birdsong and whale song show patterns similar to human language

Do Birds Learn Like Babies? New Hebrew University Study Finds Language-Like Patterns in Finch Songs (original news release) "It turns out that songbirds, humpback whales, and human babies may all rely on the same hidden mathematical rules when learning to communicate.

A new study reveals that Bengalese finches organize their songs using the same statistical patterns found in human speech—an evolutionary solution that makes complex communication easier to learn and pass from one generation to the next. The discovery suggests that some of language’s most fundamental building blocks may not be uniquely human after all, but a universal feature of learned communication."

Language-like statistical structure arises in learned signaling: evidence from birdsong (open access)

Fig. 3. Detected subsequences follow a Zipfian distribution throughout development, but their statistical coherence and slope increase as they approach the adult target.

A Magnetic Clue to Life’s Origins Chemistry

Amazing stuff!

"... Their study, recently published in Chem, offers a possible missing link in a theory proposing that life first emerged on magnetic surfaces, such as the beds of shallow lakes rich in magnetic minerals. ...

an experiment ... used right- and left-handed versions of methionine – an amino acid that typically initiates protein synthesis – and passed a solution containing this amino acid through a paper filter embedded with micron-sized magnetic particles.

To track the molecules, the researchers incorporated two carbon isotopes – atoms of the same element with different weights – into the amino acid.

In some experiments, right-handed molecules contained the more common, lighter carbon-12 isotope and left-handed ones the heavier carbon-13;

in others, the assignment was reversed. The direction of magnetization was also switched: In different iterations of the experiment, the magnets first pointed toward the solution with one of their poles, north or south, then with the other. After filtering the solution, the scientists used mass spectrometry to measure the ratio of isotopes and the balance between the two chiral forms.

The result was unexpected. The magnetic filter appeared to separate methionine not only by chirality but also by isotope composition. Molecules containing the heavier carbon isotope – regardless of their handedness – showed a stronger attraction to particles magnetized in one direction over the other. ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"The bigger picture

Isotopic fractionation in biomolecules provides key insight into chemical and biochemical formation pathways, yet the mechanisms underlying isotope selectivity in chiral molecular systems remain poorly understood.

This work demonstrates a direct experimental connection between spin-dependent interactions and isotopic effects in a chiral amino acid, showing that molecules differing only in their carbon isotope composition interact differently with oppositely magnetized surfaces. These findings reveal a previously unexplored contribution of electronic spin polarization to isotopic behavior in molecular systems.

More broadly, the results introduce spin selectivity as a new physical dimension in isotope chemistry.

In the longer term, such spin- and chirality-dependent interactions may enable new approaches for isotope discrimination or separation in chiral chemical environments, with potential relevance to analytical chemistry and materials design.

By linking magnetic interactions, molecular chirality, and isotope effects, this study establishes a framework for investigating how subtle spin-mediated processes can influence isotopic outcomes in complex molecular systems.

Highlights

• Spin-polarized magnetic filters induce carbon isotope fractionation in L-methionine

• Volume-resolved elution reveals metastable spin-dependent interactions

• Chirality couples electronic spin selectivity to isotope chemistry

• Spin-dependent effects may shape isotopic signatures in early biomolecules

Summary

Distinct isotopic fractionation in biomolecules, compared with atmospheric values, reflects their biosynthetic origin.

Monitoring these fractionation changes offers a valuable approach for probing early metabolic networks.

A key question in the study of life’s origins is the role of electronic spin and magnetic surfaces in symmetry breaking and the emergence of homochirality.

Here, we used magnetic filters to show that the dynamical interaction with the magnetic surfaces changes the isotope fractions of 13C L-methionine compared with 12C L-methionine.

Specifically, mass spectrometry analysis reveals that the isotopic fractionation of both natural and ¹³C-enriched L-methionine is influenced by electron spin-dependent interactions."

A Magnetic Clue to Life’s Origins - Chemistry | Weizmann Wonder Wander - News, Features and Discoveries "Study suggests that magnetic surfaces may influence not only the handedness of biological molecules but also their isotope composition – thus connecting two fundamental fingerprints of life"

Spin-dependent isotopic fractionation of L-methionine (no public access, appeared in March 2026)

Graphical abstract

Saber-toothed tiger suffered painful spinal tumors

Amazing stuff! Was the saber-toothed tiger unfit for life and evolution eliminated this species?

Cancer is not a modern disease!

"With its fearsome, fast-growing fangs and burly forelimbs, the saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) was built to kill. According to new research, however, there was one foe these prehistoric predators couldn’t overpower.

P.S. There appears to be some controversy as what to call this extinct animal, but to call it a cat as done by AAAS  and the authors of the research article is also wrong since it was much bigger than today's cats!

During the Pleistocene, many saber-toothed cats met their doom in California’s sticky La Brea Tar Pits, likely lured there by the distress calls of trapped prey.

In a new study, scientists analyzed these animals’ fossilized spines, ultimately identifying 3722 vertebrae representing at least 849 adult cats.

The team found numerous abnormalities, including dozens of incompletely developed or fused vertebrae and hundreds that had formed incorrectly. Three vertebrae retrieved from three different pits also showed evidence of spinal nerve tumors, which would have caused severe pain and reduced limb function, likely impairing the animals’ ability to hunt.

Carcasses stuck in the tar pits would have been especially tempting. “ A trapped prey animal is very attractive for a predator in pain,”  ..."

From the abstract:

"Tracing the health of extinct populations is important. Documenting this in deep time is challenging, but skeletal markers of disease can be preserved in fossils.

Notably, a high incidence of spinal malformations has been recorded among specimens found in the La Brea Tar Pits, possibly because of an accumulation of expressed deleterious alleles that caused disturbances in developmental processes. The exceptional preservation of hundreds of specimens of the La Brea saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis allows us to examine pathologies within and across populations, with dire wolves from the same site and extant large-bodied felids serving as a basis for comparison.

We identified three vertebral specimens from S. fatalis with changes indicating a possible spinal nerve tumor (SNT). The prevalence-like estimate was 353 per 100,000 individuals. The observed prevalence of foraminal widening compatible with presumed SNT among the La Brea S. fatalis sample appears high relative to reported human incidence estimates of 0.22–0.38 per 100,000 individuals, although these values are not directly comparable because the fossil estimate reflects skeletal occurrence in a taphonomically biased assemblage rather than clinical incidence.

The reason for this high incidence in Smilodon fatalis is unclear, but in humans, many SNTs are associated with genetic mutations. Due to the presumed inbreeding toward the end of the species’ existence, a similar mutation could have contributed to the development of the presumed SNTs in S. fatalis."

ScienceAdviser

Saber-toothed cats became inbred—and struggled to move—before they went extinct "Population declines led to spike in spinal deformities and rare tumors, fossil study suggest"

Saber-toothed cats' spinal tumors may show how inbred species struggled to survive

Saber-toothed cats became inbred—and struggled to move—before they went extinct

Foraminal widening indicating a spinal nerve tumor in the saber-tooth cat Smilodon fatalis from Rancho La Brea (open access)

Source

Fig. 1 Photograph of the cranial L7 of HC 12233 showing a smoothly outlined left-sided foraminal widening and bone remodeling forming a ‘cast’-like indentation (arrow) of a presumed SNT (black space-occupying lesion in the drawing) at the level of the foramen.

HAQERs evolved after hominins split from chimps but before Homo sapiens diverged from Neanderthals

Amazing stuff!

"... Researchers built on past studies documenting the language abilities—and saliva—of 350 elementary school children. They wanted to analyze genetic regulatory sequences called Human Ancestor Quickly Evolved Regions (HAQERs), which influence how genes get expressed. The students’ DNA helped the team confirm HAQERs’ importance in processing and demonstrating language. Then, the researchers looked for the presence of HAQERs in regions of DNA known to have evolved in ancient primates and hominins.

They found that HAQERs evolved after hominins split from chimps but before Homo sapiens diverged from Neanderthals—meaning complex communication likely preceded our own species. This “sliver of the genome has remained relatively constant, even as other aspects have been going up and up and up to make modern humans smarter and smarter ,” author Jacob Michaelson said in a statement. “We can say humans at least had the ‘hardware’ for language earlier than what we previously thought.”

As for why the HAQERs didn’t continue to evolve much after the Neanderthal-human split, the researchers suggest it’s because they promote fetal development—and give babies bigger heads. That tradeoff would have quickly cost the lives of ancient mothers and infants."

From the abstract:

"Language is a defining feature of our species, yet the genomic changes enabling it remain poorly understood. Despite decades of work since FOXP2’s discovery, we still lack a clear picture of which regions shaped language evolution and how variation contributes to present-day phenotypic differences.

Using an evolutionary stratified polygenic score approach, we find that human ancestor quickly evolved regions (HAQERs) are associated with spoken language abilities (discovery N = 350, total replication N > 100,000).

HAQERs evolved before the human-Neanderthal split, giving hominins increased binding of Forkhead and Homeobox transcription factors, and show evidence of balancing selection across the past 20,000 years.

Language-associated variants in HAQERs appear more prevalent in Neanderthals, and HAQER-like sequences show convergent evolution across vocal-learning mammals. Our results reveal how ancient innovations continue shaping human language."

ScienceAdviser

Ancient regulatory evolution shapes individual language abilities in present-day humans (open access)

Fig. 1. Overview of this study and key findings. (ka, thousand years ago; Ma, million years ago.)

Massive Ancient-DNA Study Reveals Natural Selection Has Accelerated in Recent Human Evolution

Amazing stuff!

"At a glance

• Applying new analytic methods to nearly 16,000 ancient genomes reveals natural selection has acted on hundreds, not dozens, of genes in West Eurasia over the last 10,000 years.
• More than half of the genes have known links to disease risk and other traits today, although it’s not yet clear what made each gene advantageous in prehistoric contexts.
• The work demonstrates the power of ancient DNA to illuminate human biology and medicine in addition to history.

A massive study of ancient DNA from nearly 16,000 people across more than 10,000 years in West Eurasia reveals that natural selection has shaped modern human genomes far more than previously thought. ...

Combining an unprecedented amount of ancient genomic data with novel computational methods, the new analysis shows instead that directional selection has driven the spread or decline of hundreds of gene variants in West Eurasia since the end of the Ice Age and that selection has actually accelerated since people transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming. ...

Since 2010, when the first genome-wide data was recovered from ancient human remains, ancient-DNA research has expanded understanding of the relationships among people living in different time periods and regions of the world.

But geneticists struggled to realize the technology’s promise to illuminate how natural selection has shaped human genetic variation even over the last 10,000 years, when there is enough well-preserved genetic material to support large-scale studies.

The new study broke through that barrier using two innovations.

First, the Reich Lab spent seven years building a collection of DNA sequences from ancient people living in West Eurasia — what is now Europe and parts of the Middle East — that would be comprehensive enough in size and time span to support the work. ...

The lab collaborated with more than 250 archeologists and anthropologists to report new DNA data from 10,016 ancient individuals from West Eurasia. They added those to another 5,820 published ancient sequences and 6,438 modern ones.

“This single paper doubles the size of the ancient human DNA literature,” ...

The second innovation — and even more important to the success of the study, ...  development of computational methods to isolate the signal of directional selection from other causes of gene frequency changes, such as human migration, population mixing, and random genetic fluctuations that occur in small populations. ..."

From the abstract:

"Ancient DNA has transformed our understanding of population history, but its potential to reveal as much about human evolutionary biology has not been realized because of limited sample sizes and the difficulty of distinguishing sustained rises in allele frequency increasing fitness—directional selection—from shifts due to migrations, population structure, or non-adaptive purifying or stabilizing selection.

Here we present a method for detecting directional selection in ancient DNA time-series data that tests for consistent trends in allele frequency change over time, and apply it to 15,836 West Eurasians (10,016 with new data).

Previous work has shown that classic hard sweeps driving advantageous mutations to fixation have been rare over the broad span of human evolution.

By contrast, in the past ten millennia, we find that many hundreds of alleles have been affected by strong directional selection.

We also document one-standard-deviation changes on the scale of modern variation in combinations of alleles that today predict complex traits. This includes decreases in predicted body fat and schizophrenia, and increases in measures of cognitive performance. These effects were measured in industrialized societies, and it remains unclear how these relate to phenotypes that were adaptive in the past. We estimate selection coefficients at 9.7 million variants, enabling study of how Darwinian forces couple to allelic effects and shape the genetic architecture of complex traits."

Massive Ancient-DNA Study Reveals Natural Selection Has Accelerated in Recent Human Evolution | Harvard Medical School (Caveat: I did not read the entire, long article) "Hundreds of genes selected in West Eurasia since farming began, many linked to health"

Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia (no public access)

City life is reshaping wildlife behavior around the world: Stealing sandwiches and sipping sodas

That is called symbioses of humans and wildlife, which is part of modern evolution! This symbioses has been going on already for several thousand of years since humans started to live in settlements.

Don't believe the alarmism and hysteria by researchers warning us here! Overblown concerns or bait for more research funding!

A related subject is non domestic animal population control in urban areas. E.g. there are probably way too many birds in the Phoenix metro area ,Arizona.

"... The urban monkeys in New Delhi are so bold they’ll steal the lunch right off your plate. 

If you’ve spent time in New York, you’ve probably seen squirrels try to do the same.

Sydney’s white ibises got the nickname “bin chickens” for stealing trash and sandwiches.

This brazen behavior isn’t normal for most species in the countryside, yet it shows up in urban wildlife, and not just in these cities. ...

Studies show that animals living in urban environments around the world exhibit common sets of behaviors. At the same time, these urban animals are losing traits they would need in the wild. This process of urban animals’ behavior becoming more similar is known as “behavioral homogenization,” and it accompanies the loss of species diversity with urbanization. ..."

From the abstract:

"A variety of human activities, especially urbanization, are not only homogenizing species composition but also eroding behavioral diversity. This Essay introduces the concept of behavioral homogenization: the human-driven convergence of behavioral traits across individuals, populations, and species across space and time. 

Global examples of fear responses, foraging, communication, activity patterns, social behavior, cognition and exploration, habitat use, breeding-site choice, migration, and heterospecific interaction networks are used to argue that spatial and temporal beta-diversity in behavior is shrinking in human-dominated landscapes.

Ecological and evolutionary consequences, including for animal cultures and human–wildlife conflict, are outlined and opportunities to quantify and integrate behavioral homogenization into biodiversity conservation and management are highlighted."

City animals act in the same brazen ways around the world "Researchers warn that as animals adapt to city life, they may be losing traits needed to survive in the wild [???]"

Behavioral convergence under urbanization: An overlooked dimension of biotic homogenization (open access)

What is not to like about Coca Cola? Caution: satire!

Fig 2. Schematic of urban-driven behavioral homogenization.

Near-earth asteroid contains all five DNA, RNA bases and Vitamin B3, boosting origin of life theories

Amazing stuff!

"Samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu have been found to contain all five nucleobases, adding to evidence that life’s building blocks exist elsewhere in the solar system. The researchers think that such asteroids may have helped deliver these molecules to Earth, potentially kick-starting life.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched a spacecraft to the carbon-rich Ryugu asteroid in December 2014 as part of its Hayabusa 2 mission. The spacecraft made two landings on the asteroid’s surface in 2019, before returning to Earth in December 2020.

Initial analysis of a sample from the mission revealed the presence of the nucleobase uracil, as well as nicotinic acid (vitamin B3), its derivatives and several imidazoles.

Scientists in Japan have now analysed two other samples collected during the mission, using high-performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry to determine the type and abundance of molecules in the sample. ..."

Ryugu asteroid contains all five DNA and RNA bases, boosting origin of life theories | Chemistry World

Samples from the asteroid Ryugu (bottom left) were found to contain all five nucleobases

Deer uses photoluminescence to mark trees like signposts

Amazing stuff!

"... So, to get noticed, deer mark areas with rubs and scrapes, known as signposts. Now, a new study in Ecology and Evolution reports that these signposts hold a hidden glow, and other deer can see it.

In the study the researchers describe this hidden glow as photoluminescence, the process by which an organic object absorbs light of a short wavelength and re-emits it at a longer wavelength. ...

The team observed the signposts glowing brighter during the breeding season. The scientists hypothesize more intensive rubbing generates this brighter glow. ..."

From the abstract:

"Ultraviolet (UV) induced photoluminescence is widespread in Mammalia; however, its function(s) remain unclear. Most of the research to date has focused on the surface expression of photoluminescence (e.g., pelage), described qualitatively.

Here, we report a quantitative assessment of photoluminescence of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus, herein deer) used for marking signposts. We analyzed 146 signposts, including 109 antler rubs on trees and 37 scent-marking scrapes. We compared the spectra of signposts to the spectra of surrounding environmental features elicited by exposure to excitation lights peaking at 365 and 395 nm. Signposts showed significant contrast when compared to environmental backgrounds (p < 0.001), and the resulting photoluminescence would be visible to deer based on previously described deer visual capabilities.

This research is the first quantitative description of the functional use of environmental photoluminescence by a mammal and gives new perspective about how white-tailed deer perceive their environment and communicate."

Deer communicate with hidden glow on signposts "The study is the first to unequivocally show how deer use a kind of photoluminescent marking system to communicate with one another."

White-tailed Deer Signpost Photoluminescence (open access)

The study is the first to unequivocally show how deer use a kind of photoluminescent marking system on trees to communicate with one another