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Contact: M. Royhan Gani rgani@egi.utah.edu 801-585-3539 University of Utah Evolution tied to Earth movementGeologists say 'Wall of Africa' allowed humanity to emerge Nahid and Royhan Gani, geologists at the University of Utah's Energy and Geoscience Institute, stand on the Ethiopian Plateau near the Gorge of the Nile, which was carved by Africa's... Scientists long have focused on how climate and vegetation allowed human ancestors to evolve in Africa. Now, University of Utah geologists are calling renewed attention to the idea that ground movements formed mountains and valleys, creating environments that favored the emergence of humanity. “Tectonics [movement of Earth’s crust]...

For African bat bugs, the battle of the sexes is quite literally a violent struggle—and now it appears that the bugs are using gender-bending tactics to defend themselves. Bat bugs are small, reddish-brown parasites related to bed bugs that suck the blood of bats and sometimes bite humans. Researchers have long known that male bat bugs ignore females' conventional parts and instead use their sharp penises to stab the females' abdomens, injecting sperm directly into the bloodstream. So the females evolved a defense: structures called paragenitals that guide a male's needle-like member into a spongy reservoir of immune cells. But...