/newsroom/taxonomy/term/1266/all en /newsroom/channels/news/what-crocodile-dna-reveals-about-ice-age-345190 <p>What drives crocodile evolution? Is climate a major factor or changes in sea levels? Determined to find answers to these questions, researchers from ƻ����Ժ discovered that while changing temperatures and rainfall had little impact on the crocodiles’ gene flow over the past three million years, changes to sea levels during the Ice Age had a different effect.</p> Mon, 23 Jan 2023 16:26:04 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 288646 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/ecological-rule-breaker-shows-effects-climate-change-body-size-evolution-343871 <p>Does evolution follow certain rules? Can these rules be predicted? Southeast Asia’s tree shrews break multiple rules when it comes to body size variation – with an unexpected twist – according to researchers from ƻ����Ժ, University of Cambridge, and Yale University. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23774-w">findings</a> shed new light on the effects of climate change on the evolution of body size in animals.</p> Fri, 25 Nov 2022 19:14:10 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 288538 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/hidden-secrets-flowers-344201 <p>To better understand the evolution of flowers, researchers from Montreal are harnessing photogrammetry – a technique commonly used by geographers to reconstruct landscape topography. This is the first time scientists have used the technique to study flowers.</p> <p>The team, including researchers from ƻ����Ժ, Université de Montréal, and the Montreal Botanical Garden, published the results of their work in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.18553"><i>New Phytologist</i></a>.</p> Fri, 09 Dec 2022 21:21:56 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 288564 at /newsroom /newsroom/virginie-millien Thu, 27 Oct 2022 15:55:20 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 288462 at /newsroom /newsroom/rowan-barrett Fri, 19 Aug 2022 21:08:19 +0000 lawrence.chiang@mail.mcgill.ca 288318 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/tiny-bodies-bats-allow-perfect-balance-between-flight-costs-and-heat-dissipation-340393 <p>Many mammal species living in cold climates tend to have large bodies and short limbs to reduce heat loss – a general pattern known as Bergmann’s rule. However, bats are the exception to the rule, displaying small body sizes in both hot and cold regions. A ƻ����Ժ-led team of researchers is shedding light on this long-standing debate over bats’ body sizes and focus on why bats are seemingly non-conforming to ecogeographical patterns found in other mammals. Their findings offer a new method for investigating complex macroecology across bat species.</p> Thu, 21 Jul 2022 16:33:35 +0000 frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca 288261 at /newsroom /newsroom/andrew-hendry Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:54:35 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 286029 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/what-rise-oxygen-early-earth-tells-us-about-life-other-planets-337051 <p>When did the Earth reach oxygen levels sufficient to support animal life? Researchers from ƻ����Ժ have discovered that a rise in oxygen levels occurred in step with the evolution and expansion of complex, eukaryotic ecosystems. Their findings represent the strongest evidence to date that extremely low oxygen levels exerted an important limitation on evolution for billions of years.</p> Mon, 24 Jan 2022 21:23:08 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 284911 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/uncovering-underlying-patterns-contemporary-evolution-336562 <p>Wild populations must continuously adapt to environmental changes or risk extinction. For more than fifty years, scientists have described instances of “rapid evolution” in specific populations as their traits (phenotypes) change in response to varying stressors. For example, Spanish clover has developed a tolerance for copper from the mine tailings in which it grows, and the horn size of Alberta bighorn sheep has decreased due to trophy hunting.</p> Tue, 18 Jan 2022 14:38:05 +0000 katherine.gombay@mcgill.ca 284331 at /newsroom /newsroom/jesse-shapiro Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:59:44 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 283747 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/crocodile-evolution-rebooted-ice-age-glaciations-328615 <p>Crocodiles are resilient animals from a lineage that has survived for over 200 million years. Skilled swimmers, crocodiles can travel long distances and live in freshwater or marine environments. But they can’t roam far on land. American crocodiles (<i>Crocodylus acutus</i>) are found in the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of the Neotropics but they arrived in the Pacific before Panama existed, according to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evo.14139">researchers from ƻ����Ժ</a>.</p> Mon, 15 Feb 2021 21:33:32 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 256622 at /newsroom /newsroom/andrew-gonzalez Wed, 23 Dec 2020 20:51:46 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 254373 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/bat-winged-dinosaurs-could-glide-325614 <p>Despite having bat-like wings, two small dinosaurs, <i>Yi</i> and <i>Ambopteryx, </i>struggled to fly, only managing to glide clumsily between the trees where they lived, according to a new study led by an international team of researchers, including ƻ����Ժ Professor <a href="http://redpath-staff.mcgill.ca/larsson/personalpages/hans_larsson/hans_larsson.htm">Hans Larsson</a>. Unable to compete with other tree-dwelling dinosaurs and early birds, they went extinct after just a few million years.</p> Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:49:44 +0000 shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca 244354 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/origin-complex-life-form-revealed-324170 <p>Researchers from ƻ����Ժ have revealed the steps by which two very distinct organisms – bacteria and carpenter ants – have come to depend on one another for survival to become a single complex life form. The study, published today in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2653-6"><i>Nature</i></a><i>, </i>shows that the two species have collaborated to radically alter the development of the ant embryo to allow this integration to happen. Understanding how such grand unifications originate and evolve is a major puzzle for biologists.</p> Tue, 01 Sep 2020 19:42:22 +0000 katherine.gombay@mcgill.ca 237454 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/ctv-news-some-dinosaurs-were-flying-there-were-birds-new-research-suggests-323691 <p>Biologists now have a better idea of the origin of birds and the evolution of flight, two iconic events in the history of life on earth, thanks to work by a group of international scientists including a ƻ����Ժ professor. In updating the evolutionary tree, the team’s findings show some dinosaurs could fly before they evolved into birds, and many others were experimenting with powered flight.</p> Thu, 13 Aug 2020 23:28:35 +0000 amelia.souffrant@mail.mcgill.ca 233899 at /newsroom