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biology, density, diversity, forests, fungi, pathogen, plants, Popular science, science, tropical forests
29 Wednesday Jan 2014
Posted Conservation, Evolution, Insects, Plants
in05 Friday Oct 2012
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biology, Blond, diversity, Europeans, Genetics, Genome, Melanesians, Popular science, science, science and society, Science in Society, Solomon Islands
On the Solomon Islands in the south-eastern Pacific, it’s not uncommon to come across Melanesian children with dark skin and remarkably blond hair. While most people might take this unusual trait as a sign of European ancestry, Sean Myles wasn’t convinced. Curious to understand how the darkest skinned people outside of Africa could also have the highest frequency of blond hair outside of Europe, he led a team of scientists to unravel the genetics behind this mystery. The striking results of their research should serve as a note of caution about what we’re learning from the rapidly growing field from human genomics.
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24 Saturday Mar 2012
Tags
adaptive radiation, animals, Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, dinosaur, diversity, mammal, Popular science, teeth
A study recently published in Nature challenges the prevailing wisdom that the extinction of the dinosaurs paved the way for an explosion of mammalian diversity. By studying the fossils of a group of mammals called multituberculates, the researchers have cast doubt on the traditional view of dinosaurs constraining small, shrew-like mammals to a secondary role as nocturnal insectivores. Instead, this group seems to have diversified millions of years before the dinosaurs died out.
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