Evolution

Fossil evidence of a completely unknown prehistoric species of giant sand worm has been discovered in Devon, England. The giant worms would have lived 260 million years ago, long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, growing up to 3ft long and 6in wide. Large burrow holes were found indicating that the creatures would have travelled beneath the surface."Scientists have found evidence of a giant prehistoric sand worm in an English seaside resort.

Proof of the creatures" existence, which lived 260million years ago, has been found in Torbay, Devon. The worms, which grew up to 3ft long and 6in wide, are thought to have lived underground before dinosaurs roamed the earth. Experts at the English Riviera Geopark organisation have found large burrow holes that are said to have been made bythe creatures as they travelled beneath the surface. "

View: Full Article | Source: TheTelegraph

A 29-million-year-old skull has indicated that apes and Old World monkeys diverged far later than thought. Researchers have discovered the skull of a 29 million-year-old animal that could be a common ancestor of Old World monkeys and apes, including humans. Itindicates that apes and Old World monkeys diverged millions of years later than previously thought, say the scientists.

The discovery was made in Saudi Arabia by researchers from the University of Michigan.

View: Full article | Source: BBCNews

Tibetans living at altitudes of 13,000 feet have evolved to cope with their environment in only a few thousand years. Tibetans live at altitudes of 13,000 feet, breathing air that has 40 percent less oxygen than is available at sea level, yet suffer very little mountain sickness. The reason, according to a teamof biologists in China, is human evolution, in what may be the most recent and fastest instance detected so far.

The finding explains why Tibetans do not get mountain sickness but raises the question of how they compensate for the lack of oxygen if not by making extra red blood cells.

View: Full article | Source: New YorkTimes

In a quest to understand how life began on Earth, scientists have discovered that a blast of ultraviolet light may have been the spoon that stirred the simmering primordial soup. The research demonstrates a more commonplace scenario for creating RNA -- believed to be an early coding system for life.

And that opens a wider door for life's evolution not only on Earth, but possibly elsewhere in the solar system and beyond. Researchers at Georgia Tech and the University of Roma "La Sapienza" focused on the molecule formamide, the simplest structure containing the required four building blocks of life -- carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Previous studies have already shown how heating formamide in a mineral stew creates most of the ingredients for ribonucleic acid, commonly known as RNA.

View: Full Article | Source: Discovery Channel