Two explosions may have shaped early multicellular life

The Ediacara fossil: Fractofusus andersoni

Scientists have known for some time that most major groups of complex animals appeared in the fossils record during the Cambrian Explosion, a seemingly rapid evolutionary event that occurred 542 million years ago. Now Virginia Tech paleontologists, using rigorous analytical methods, have identified another explosive evolutionary event that occurred about 33 [...]

Scientists find missing evolutionary link using tiny fungus crystal

The crystal structure of an RNA molecule bound to a protein.

The crystal structure of a molecule from a primitive fungus has served as a time machine to show researchers more about the evolution of life from the simple to the complex, as outlined in this recent study.
By studying the three-dimensional version of the fungus protein [...]

Frogs may be on the brink of extinction

This frog needs your help.

The year of 2008 has now been named among conservationists, the Year of the Frog in response to the impending doom in store for frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and caecilians across the planet. According to this article at Telegraph.co.uk, this is going to be the biggest mass extinction since the [...]

Synthetic DNA close to yielding new life forms

Scientists at LS9, Inc. hard at work

A recent recent article on The Washington Post went into detail about how the idea creating artificial life forms through artificial DNA may be soon turned reality. Up until recently, even the most advanced laboratories couldn’t really do much more than add a few extra genes to something [...]

Ancient kangaroos didn’t hop

A 25 MILLION-year-old fossil has revealed that a predecessor of Australia’s hopping kangaroo once galloped on all fours, had dog-like fangs and possibly climbed trees, scientists have reported.