What was the evolutionary need for a mammal?

Mammal ancestors evolved a killer instinct - Cosmos Magazine

Before dinosaurs, ancestors of mammals were the top predators. These first large land carnivores evolved new tools to hone their skills as ...

Are humans driving evolution in animals? - BBC News

Not all human selection pressures are as intentional as those imposed by plant and animal breeders. Recent research is revealing that many of ...

Mammals as a Key to Evolutionary Theory | Journal of Mammalogy

Mammalogy provides exceptionally fertile grounds for advancing evolutionary theory, because its data base spans from diverse researches on living forms to a ...

How did mammals (and maybe dinosaurs) get so big? - Research

Through our research we have revealed that changes in foot postures played a key role in the evolution of body size in mammals – namely in how ...

Evolutionary Transitions in the Fossil Record of Terrestrial Hoofed ...

However, there are amazing evolutionary sequences known for tapirs, rhinos, brontotheres, camels, giraffes, and many other groups that receive ...

The Evolutionary History of the Animal Kingdom – Biology

The cause of the Cambrian explosion is still debated. There are many theories that attempt to answer this question. Environmental changes may have created a ...

The animals that may exist in a million years, imagined by biologists

Environments can drive evolution by exerting selection pressure, favoring some traits over others. For example, some birds have evolved long, ...

10 weird ways humans have influenced animal evolution

Humans have been altering life on Earth for tens of thousands of years. Meet ten of the animals whose evolutionary paths have been sculpted by our actions.

In the Eye of Evolution: Why are Mammals Warm-Blooded?

If you ate like a crocodile, whose body temperature hovers around 32°C (90°F), you'd have to eat less than 50 meals a year. And that works just ...

In evolution of body size, 24 million generations from mouse to ...

"As a group, marine mammals are bigger than terrestrial mammals. It appears that life in the ocean requires large body size, so there must be a ...

why did mammals go the fur route, rather than developing feathers?

Mammals evolved from the synapsids (such as the finback, Dimetrodon) between 320 and 315 million years ago, while birds evolved from theropod ...

Jaw-dropping mammal evolution discovery fills in more blanks

Exciting revelations from the world of paleontology have come crashing in, confirming that the evolution of mammals and their jaws, was a bit more wild and ...

Split-second of evolutionary cellular change could have led to ...

A newly-published hypothesis, led by a UCL researcher, suggests a momentary leap in a single species on a single day millions of years ago ...

Making Sense of Manatees - UF Research

So while size proved a benefit to the animal in evolution, it had no need for the intricate sensory systems and complex varying behaviors of mammals with bigger ...

Evolution: How (some) mammals lost their hair - eLife

However, there are several so-called 'hairless' species – such as whales, walruses, elephants, and humans – that have considerably less hair ...

Ancestor of All Placental Mammals Revealed | Science | AAAS

"These new findings call for a reevaluation of the evolutionary story of placental mammals ... have evolved in Africa—actually lived somewhere in ...

An Evolutionary Point of View of Animal Ethics - Frontiers

In addition, it intuitively places humans as the drivers of the future evolution of animal species and strengthens the idea that humans do not ...

Evolutionary reasons why suffering prevails in nature - Animal Ethics

Because of this, different reproductive strategies have been selected for by evolution. ... Some strategies prioritize paternal care, longer lifespan, and ...

Killer instinct drove evolution of mammals' predatory ancestors ...

The evolutionary success of the first large predators on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, researchers at the University of Bristol and the ...

Mammal Evolution has a Speed Limit, says USU Biologist

Scientists have measured how fast large-scale evolution can occur in mammals. The answer? Twenty-four million generations for a mouse-sized animal to evolve to ...