Earth is home to millions of known species of plants and animals, but by no means are they distributed evenly. For instance, rainforests cover less than 2 percent of Earth's total surface, yet they are home to 50 percent of Earth's species. Oceans account for 71 percent of Earth's total surface but contain only 15 percent of Earth's species. What drives this uneven distribution of species on Earth is a major question for scientists.

In a paper published February 16 in the Journal of...

Read more about Ferns in the mountains

The colors in a flower patch appear completely different to a bear, a honeybee, a butterfly and humans. The ability to see these colors is generated by specific properties of opsins - light-sensitive proteins in the retina of our eyes. The number of opsins expressed and the molecular structure of the receptor proteins determines the colors we see.

In a paper published February 9 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a team of researchers led by Harvard University develop...

Read more about Color is in the eye of the beholder

Fin-to-limb transition is an icon of key evolutionary transformations. Many studies focus on understanding the evolution of the simple fin into a complicated limb skeleton by examining the fossil record. In a paper published February 4 in Cell, researchers at Harvard and Boston Children's Hospital examined what's occurring at the genetic level to drive different patterns in the fin skeleton versus the limb skeleton.

Researchers, led by M. Brent Hawkins, a recent doctoral...

Read more about Can a fin become a limb?

When tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) began to move from water to land roughly 390 million years ago it set in motion the rise of lizards, birds, mammals, and all land animals that exist today, including humans and some aquatic vertebrates such as whales and dolphins.

The earliest tetrapods originated from their fish ancestors in the Devonian period and are more than twice as old as the oldest dinosaur fossils. They resembled a cross between a giant salamander and a crocodile and were about 1-2 meters long, had gills, webbed feet and tail fins, and were still heavily tied...

Read more about Researchers reconstruct changes in forelimb function as vertebrates moved onto land

In a new study in Current Biology, a team of researchers led by Professor Charles Davis presented the most complete genome yet assembled of one of the major Rafflesiaceae lineages, Sapria himalayana. 

The genetic analysis revealed an astonishing degree of gene loss and surprising amounts of gene theft from its ancient and modern hosts. These findings...

Read more about Genetic sequence for parasitic flowering plant Sapria

Congratulations to Mansi Srivastava recipient of the 2021 Society for Developmental Biology Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award for her work developing the acoel worm, Hofstenia miamia as a model to study whole-body regeneration and uncovering its gene regulatory network. The award recognizes new investigators who have performed outstanding research in developmental biology during the early stages of their independent career. Read more about Mansi Srivastava Recipient of Elizabeth D. Hay New Investigator Award

PhD Candidate Alex Heyde (Mahadevan Lab) and Professor L. Mahadevan have developed a mathematical model to help explain how termites construct their intricate mounds.

The research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences built on previous studies in the Mahadevan lab on termite mound physiology and morphogenesis. Previous research showed that day-to-night temperature variations drive convective flow in the...

Read more about Constructing termite turrets without a blueprint