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Picturing how our species might appear in the far future often invites wild speculation over stand-out features such as height, brain size, and skin complexion. Yet subtle shifts in our anatomy today demonstrate how unpredictable evolution can be. Take something as mundane as an extra blood vessel in our arms, which going by current trends could be common place within just a few generations. Researchers from Flinders University and the University of Adelaide in Australia have noticed an artery that temporarily runs down the centre of our forearms while we're still in the womb isn't vanishing as often as it...

Gobekli Tepe Summary In 1994, almost forty years after The Urantia Book’s 1955 publication, excavations began at the Gobekli Tepe archaeological site in Turkey. The Gobekli Tepe site already reveals 50 engraved stone monoliths, some of them dating back to 12,000 years ago, that are at least 6,000 years older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. A full excavation to the bottom of the site has not yet occurred, and only a small percentage of the site has been uncovered. The evidence suggests that the complex of round rooms with two especially large pillars in the middle were built for...

Microevolution, Macroevolution; Chance, Necessityby Jean F. Drew A friend asked me the other day, “What’s your understanding of the mechanism that causes microevolution, and how would that mechanism differ in the case of macroevolution?” The question struck me as loaded. So I thought it might be good to unpack its elements, beginning with an analysis of the terms microevolution and macroevolution. As Doron Aurbach, Professor of Chemistry at Bar Han University, Israel, has pointed out, “When we examine what is universally known as evolution theory, we need to distinguish between two distinct aspects of the theory, namely, micro- and macro-evolution.”...

The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist. 100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.

Crucial presidential debates are coming soon. For Republicans they can be a problem, especially when it comes to evolution. Often reporters ask questions designed to do irreparable harm to conservative candidates. That was exactly the intent of the evolution question in the first GOP candidate forum on MSNBC on May 3. --snip-- Here's what I believe the best answer would have been to the evolution trap: "I can't answer until I understand your question. Are you asking about microevolution or macroevolution?" This forces an airing of the... --snip-- "Well, if you mean microevolution, where an organism adapts to its environment...

Finches on the Galapagos Islands that inspired Charles Darwin to develop the concept of evolution are now helping confirm it — by evolving. A medium sized species of Darwin's finch has evolved a smaller beak to take advantage of different seeds just two decades after the arrival of a larger rival for its original food source. The altered beak size shows that species competing for food can undergo evolutionary change, said Peter Grant of Princeton University, lead author of the report appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science. Grant has been studying Darwin's finches for decades and previously recorded...

The breakup of giant icebergs may have forced minor evolutionary changes in penguins over the past 6,000 years, a new study suggests. The Antarctic iceberg chunks, which break off the continent now and then, are thought to have blocked the swim paths of Adelie penguins returning home to their colonies. Some of the penguins were forced to become immigrants in other colonies, where they established new homes and interbred with the locals. As a result, genetic changes that might otherwise have remained isolated became widespread among the different colonies. The result is what scientist call microevolution. Other examples Microevolution involves...