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Washington University in St. Louis News & Information > News Topics > Science & Technology >
Evolution
The theory of evolution, formalized by Charles Darwin, is the glue of most biological research. It is the unifying theme, whether a researcher is studying lizards in the Caribbean or sex genes of green algae in a Midwestern laboratory. In paleontology, evolution gives researchers a tool to organize what is left of the past to understand how all of life evolved. Washington university researchers in biology and earth and planetary science are making key contributions to the understanding of evolution.
| Faculty Experts: |
Showing Evolution Experts 1 through 5 of 9.
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Jonathan Chase
Assistant Professor of Biology
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| Chase |
Jonathan M. Chase, assistant professor of biology, focuses his research on the rules (or lack thereof) underlying the diversity, distribution, and abundance of animal and plant species from the population/community/ecosystem perspective. His research combines observational, theoretical, and experimental ...
Expertise: biology, ecology, ecosystem, natural history, evolution, biodiversity, food webs, …
Direct contact: (314) 935-4105
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jchase@wustl.edu
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Ralph Quatrano
Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., is the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts and Sciences and chair of the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is internationally known for his plant science work on patterns of embryo formation, and how the patterns lead cells to acquire traits or ...
Expertise: Plants, plant biology, botany, moss, genome, algae, genes, …
Direct contact: (314) 935-6850
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rsq@wustl.edu
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Robert Sussman
Professor of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences
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| Sussman |
Sussman, a specialist in the ecology and social structure of primates, does extensive fieldwork in primate behavior and ecology in Costa Rica, Guyana, Madagascar and Mauritius. His groundbreaking study of two species was the subject of Marlin Perkins' documentary "Lemurs of Madagascar" in 1981. His ...
Expertise: Costa Rica, Guyana, Madagascar, Mauritius, behavior and evolution, conservation, early models, …
Direct contact: (314) 935-5264
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rwsussma@artsci.wustl.edu
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Alan Templeton
Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences
Templeton applies molecular genetic techniques and statistical population genetics to a variety of problems in evolutionary and conservation biology. He explores natural selection in various species, genetic variability, the role of lipid metabolic genes in coronary artery disease in humans, and the ...
Expertise: evolution of HIV, evolutionary and conservation biology, genetic variability, lipid metabolic genes, molecular genetics, natural selection
Direct contact: (314) 935-6868
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temple_a@biology.wustl.edu
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Erik Trinkaus
Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Physical Anthropology
Erik Trinkaus is considered by many to be the world's most influential scholar of Neandertal biology and evolution. Trinkaus' research is concerned with the evolution of our genus as a background to recent human diversity. In this, he has focused on the paleoanthropology of late archaic and early modern ...
Expertise: Human paleontology, Paleolithic archaeology, functional anatomy, skeletal biology
Direct contact: (314) 935-5207
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trinkaus@artsci.wustl.edu
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Showing Evolution Experts 1 through 5 of 9.
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| News Stories & Tip Sheets: |
Showing Evolution Stories 1 through 3 of 74.
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Burnell reflects on pulsars and being a pioneer
British astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell reflects on the process of scientific discovery and being a pioneer
March 12,
2008 -- British astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell will describe her landmark work in discovering the first pulsars at the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. on Wed., March 19 in Graham Chapel.
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Saving the lemur
New satellite imaging research could save the lemur in Madagascar
March 3,
2008 --
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| Lemur population has declined sharply since the 1950s. Through education and conservation, a WUSTL expert hopes the trend will be reversed. |
Using satellite imagery, GIS and ecological and demographic data from the field, Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has studied the effects of deforestation on the ringtailed lemur population in Madagascar during the last forty years. He has determined that while causes of deforestation vary in different parts of the African island nation, the total lemur population has dropped by more than half since the 1950s.
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Earth's orbit creates more than a leap year
Leap year adjusts calendar for natural forces driving climate change
Feb. 8,
2008 --
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| Image courtesy of NASA |
The Earth's orbital behaviors are responsible for more than just presenting us with a leap year every four years. According to Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D., associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, parameters such as planetary gravitational attractions, the Earth's elliptical orbit around the sun and the degree of tilt of our planet's axis with respect to its path around the sun, have implications for climate change and the advent of ice ages.
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Showing Evolution Stories 1 through 3 of 74.
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Wabash Fault holds high earthquake risk
United Press International
April 28,
2008 -- Scientists said the Wabash Valley Fault in Illinois may pose a higher risk to St. Louis than the better-known New Madrid Fault.
The magnitude 5.2 earthquake that originated last week on the Wabash Valley Fault was about 120 miles east of St. Louis.
WUSTL seismologists Douglas Wiens and Michael Wysession comment.
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Dental work claim challenges antiquity of hobbit skeleton
Scientific American online
April 23,
2008 -- Most paleoanthropologists believe that the 18,000 year old Flores, Indonesia hobbit belongs to a new species of human, But now comes word that the specimen used to define the species appears to have had some dental work. If so, it would mean that the hobbit was just a modern human with a growth disorder, which is what critics have argued all along.
Paleoanthropologist and WUSTL radiology professor Charles Hildebolt examined the CT scans and said that it is unlikely that any type of filling material is in the tooth.
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Computer 'Recreates' Neanderthal Speech
FoxNews.com
April 17,
2008 -- No one is really sure what Neanderthals sounded like, or even if they could speak. But one Florida researcher thinks he can guess, by using ancient skeletons to reconstruct an approximation of the Neanderthal vocal tract -- and then having a computer recreate the sounds it would make.
Neanderthals' inability to produce these vowels would have severely limited their ability to form and understand a complex language, McCarthy argues, though WUSTL anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, one of the world's leading experts on Neanderthals, disagrees.
"Ultimately what is important is not the anatomy of the mouth, but the neuronal control of it," Trinkaus.
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Neanderthals speak out after 30,000 years
New Scientist (UK) and FoxNews.com
April 16,
2008 -- An anthropologist has used new reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal tracts to simulate the voice. He says the ancient human's speech lacked the "quantal vowel" sounds that underlie modern speech.
WUSTL anthropologist Erik Trinkaus comments.
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NASA Spacecraft Fine Tunes Course For Mars Landing
ScienceDaily.com
and 21 others
April 11,
2008 -- NASA engineers have adjusted the flight path of the Phoenix Mars Lander, setting the spacecraft on course for its May 25 landing on the Red Planet. ...
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NASA Cut Means No Roving for Mars Rover
Associated Press
and 92 others
March 25,
2008 -- Scientists plan to put one of the twin Mars rovers to sleep and limit the activities of the other robot to fulfill a NASA order to cut $4 million from the program's budget, mission team members said Monday.
The cut comes at a time when the robots are in the midst of an extensive exploration campaign, said deputy principal investigator and WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ray Arvidson.
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Study: Neanderthals Not Doomed by Skull Shape
FoxNews.com
and 1 others
March 25,
2008 -- WUSTL's Erik Trinkaus comments on a study that tries to refute the idea that natural selection caused skull differences between Neanderthals and modern humans.
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Antarctica's unique space rocks
BBC News (UK)
March 14,
2008 -- A pair of meteorites discovered in Antarctica are in a class all of their own, a major space conference has been told.
WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ryan Zeigler comments.
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First shoes are 40,000 years old
The Sun (UK)
and 13 others
Jan. 23,
2008 -- The first shoes were designed at least 40,000 years ago. Scientists made the toe-curling discovery while examining bones from the feet of a 40,000-year-old skeleton found in a cave near Beijing in China. The study by WUSTL's Erik Trinkaus professor of anthropology and research scientist Hong Shang was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
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The New Theology
Chicago Tribune magazine
Jan. 22,
2008 -- The Chicago Tribune magazine story on the conflict between Darwin and theology. Ursula Goodenough professor of biology comments on the conflict.
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Mimicking plant evolution proves fruitful
MSNBC.com
Jan. 11,
2008 -- By mimicking plant evolution, a team of Illinois researchers has improved upon nature's design to build a leafy energy-producing powerhouse — or at least a virtual one on a supercomputer. In a study published within the journal Plant Physiology, WUSTL biology and chemistry professor Robert Blankenship comments on the Illinois study.
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Ancient cave bears were as omnivorous as modern bears
DailyIndia.com (FL)
and 6 others
Jan. 8,
2008 -- An International team of researchers has suggested that Pleistocene cave bears from the Carpathian region in Europe, were as omnivorous as modern bears. For the past 30 years, studies of their bones and teeth, and especially the nitrogen isotopes in their bone protein, had led to the conclusion that these ancient bears were largely vegetarian. Erik Trinkaus, WUSTL professor of anthropology, was part of this study.
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Evolution Book Sees No Science-Religion Gap
The New York Times
and 6 others
Jan. 4,
2008 -- In 1984 and again in 1999, the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most eminent scientific organization, produced books on the evidence supporting the theory of evolution and arguing against the introduction of creationism or other religious alternatives in public school science classes. Barbara A. Schaal, a vice president of the academy and an evolutionary biologist at WUSTL, comments on the third volume recently published.
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Dwarf Gene Discovery: Explanation for Hobbit Species?
ABC News
Jan. 4,
2008 -- In a discovery that could help boost understanding of a rare type of dwarfism, researchers announced today that they have found a genetic culprit for the condition. WUSTL genetics professor Anne Bowcock and WUSTL radiology professor Charles Hildebolt comment.
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Jupiter's Moon Europa: What Could Be Under The Ice?
ScienceDaily.com
and 3 others
Dec. 14,
2007 -- Jupiter's moon Europa is just as far away as ever, but new research is bringing scientists closer to being able to explore its tantalizing ice-covered ocean and determine its potential for harboring life.
WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor William McKinnon is discussing some of these recent findings and new opportunities for exploring Europa in a news briefing today at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
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Drought Can Destroy Diversity
LiveScience.com
Oct. 22,
2007 -- Scientists are more interested than ever in the effects of extreme climate swings, such as prolonged drought, because the computer models predict wilder extremes as one effect of the climate change now underway.
WUSTL biology professor and ecologist Jonathan Chase comments on his study that appeared in the Oct. 15 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Neanderthals hard-wired to talk
ABC Science Online (Australia)
Oct. 19,
2007 -- A new study of Neanderthal DNA, suggests Neanderthals had the ability to create language.
The finding hinges upon a single, yet critical, gene called FOXP2, which prior studies have linked to language and speech.
WUSTL anthropology professor Erik Trinkaus wrote a commentary on the new research.
In it, Trinkaus says there is no "silver bullet" like language, "which identifies us as 'human' and which can be used to identify past human forms as more or less 'human'."
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Mineral may unlock secrets of Venus's ancient oceans
NewScientist.com (UK)
Oct. 11,
2007 -- Did ancient oceans on Venus last long enough for potential life to have emerged? The answer could be locked inside a hardy mineral called tremolite, which future robotic missions to our neighbouring planet could find and study.
Experiments by Natasha Johnson of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Bruce Fegley Jr. have previously shown that tremolite, which forms in the presence of water, is tough enough that it could have survived on Venus's surface to the present.
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Neanderthals roamed as far as Siberia
NewScientist.com (UK)
Oct. 1,
2007 -- Researchers say the genetic sequence of an adolescent Neanderthal found in southern Siberia closely matches that of Neanderthals found in western Europe, suggesting that this close relative of modern humans migrated very long distances.
The study may not settle the debate over Neanderthal's range definitively, though. WUSTL anthropology professor Eric Trinkaus questions whether it definitively proves the Okladnikov bones to be those of Neanderthals.
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Were Neanderthals our enemies or lovers?
Telegraph.co.uk (UK)
July 31,
2007 -- Roger Highfield writes about new evidence that modern humans not only lived among Neanderthals but may also have interbred with them.
Article features the work of Chris Stringer, author of Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain and WUSTL anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, among others.
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