Copyright: Hervé Sauquet/Jürg Schönenberger

A Look At Flowers Millions of Years Ago

August 2, 2017

Flowering plants, which arose approximately 140 million years ago, are the most diverse group of plants on Earth. The evolution of these plants and why so diverse is a biology mystery. OEB Ph.D. student, Kristel Schoonderwoerd (Friedman Lab) is part of an international effort, the eFLOWER Project, which aims to reconstruct the evolution of flowers. The study in Nature Communications, reveals insight into the early...

Researchers Study on Avian Neck Flexibility Lays Foundation for Future Evolution Work

July 24, 2017

Birds have highly mobile necks, but the details and evolution of the complex musculoskeletal system is not well-understood. A new study in Frontiers in Zoology led by postdoc, Robert Kambic (S. Pierce Lab), and professors Stephanie Pierce and Andrew Biewener, uses biplanar X-rays on wild turkeys to evaluate the...

Stephanie Pierce Lab at Blue Beach (image courtesy Heather Desveaux)

Stephanie Pierce Lab Goes Fossil Hunting at Blue Beach

June 28, 2017

Stephanie Pierce and lab members are at Blue Beach Fossil Museum in Hantsport Nova Scotia searching for fossils from the lower carboniferous rock period. Carboniferous rocks help fill in "Romer's Gap", the period of time that explains the evolution of tetrapods from fish 360 million years ago. Outside of Nova Scotia, carboniferous fossils haven't been located anywhere else except Scotland. ...

How the Egg Got Its Shape

June 22, 2017

An international team of scientists led by L. Mahadevan and Mary Caswell Stoddard (former postdoc in Edwards Lab) have answered the question of why there is great diversity in egg shape and sizes. And, the answer may help explain how birds evolved. The groundbreaking study published in Science was chosen as the cover article. More News:... Read more about How the Egg Got Its Shape

File photograph by Ruby Arguilla/Harvard News Office

New Study Suggest Parents of Newborn Daughters Take Fewer Risks

June 21, 2017

David Haig teamed with professors at the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick to examine the effect of learning a child’s gender on parents’ attitudes towards risky behaviors upon learning a child’s gender. The authors gathered prenatal and post-birth data from the pediatric wards of hospitals in both the United Kingdom and Ukraine, allowing for longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses of those attitudes; a first for a study of this kind. The study was presented at the... Read more about New Study Suggest Parents of Newborn Daughters Take Fewer Risks

Variability in Plant Hydraulic Traits Explain Differences in Drought Tolerance Among Amazon Rainforests

May 29, 2017

A study led by Thomas Powell (Moorcroft Lab), former OEB PhD student, James Wheeler (Holbrook Lab) and Paul Moorcroft examined the unknown effects of drought tolerance among mature Amazon rainforest trees. The study found the differences in xylem and leaf hydraulic traits not only explained the differences in drought tolerance among mature Amazon rainforest trees, but are...

The team studied the spread of the Zika virus (left; courtesy NIAID) among affected regions in South and Central America and the Caribbean (right, in red). Broad Institute

Pardis Sabeti and Team of Scientists Show Zika Virus Spread Before Anyone Knew

May 25, 2017

Pardis Sabeti is part of three international teams of researchers that sequenced and studied the genomes of the Zika virus to trace its origin and spread across the Americas. Using a genetic clock and looking at DNA from samples from people and mosquitoes, the teams determined the virus was spreading long before the first cases were reported. Sabeti's team authored one of three studies published in...