https://www.earthmagazine.org/tags/darwin/ Recent content in Darwin on EARTH Magazine Hugo en-US American Geosciences Institute. All rights reserved. Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-february-12-1809-charles-robert-darwin-born-and-so-began-modern-biology/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-february-12-1809-charles-robert-darwin-born-and-so-began-modern-biology/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/benchmarks-february-12-1809-charles-robert-darwin-born-and-so-began-modern-biology/i-13e-7d9-2-c.jpg" alt="During his five weeks in the Galapagos Islands, Darwin collected many samples, some of which are shown in the traveling Darwin exhibit. Denis Finnin, American Museum of Natural History" loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>During his five weeks in the Galapagos Islands, Darwin collected many samples, some of which are shown in the traveling Darwin exhibit. Denis Finnin, American Museum of Natural History</figcaption> </figure> <p>As celebrations in honor of Charles Darwin&rsquo;s 200th birthday are in full swing this month, a revolution is rumbling through evolutionary biology. In the 150 years since Darwin published his landmark book &ldquo;On the Origin of Species,&rdquo; scientists have elucidated much of the molecular underpinnings of how evolution &mdash; natural selection, punctuated equilibrium and the like &mdash; works. One of the pillars of evolutionary theory has long been the notion that the DNA sequence is the only molecular information that is passed on from one generation to the next. But over the last decade or so, an avalanche of studies has shown that epigenetic settings &mdash; specific markings on the genome that can turn a gene on or off &mdash; can be heritable as well. Moreover, some of these epigenetic changes are triggered by environmental influences, such as stress or diet, suggesting that there is much more to evolution than just random variation followed by selection of the fittest.</p> https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/triassic-park-origin-dinosaur-species/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/triassic-park-origin-dinosaur-species/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/triassic-park-origin-dinosaur-species/i-436-7db-1-12.jpg" alt="Fossil discoveries in the past decade reveal that the earliest dinosaurs lived alongside a diverse collection of reptilian beasts during the Triassic. Steve Brusatte, AMNH" loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Fossil discoveries in the past decade reveal that the earliest dinosaurs lived alongside a diverse collection of reptilian beasts during the Triassic. Steve Brusatte, AMNH</figcaption> </figure> <p>Ask a third grader what happened to the dinosaurs and she will tell you that an asteroid killed them all. Many adults even know what caused the demise of the dinosaurs: A massive bolide crashed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico about 65 million years ago, setting in motion a series of environmental changes that killed off 60 percent of life on Earth. But if you ask people about the origin of dinosaurs 165 million years earlier, you get blank looks. Even many paleontologists have little to say about the subject.</p>