Science Daily

• Scientists found evolution repeating itself in the Galápagos Islands

  More than 150 years after Darwin’s finches helped reshape biology, Galápagos plants are exposing another evolutionary surprise. Giant daisies repeatedly developed similar heat-tolerant leaf shapes, but each lineage used a different combination of genes. Researchers also found major genetic differences among isolated populations, suggesting new species may be forming right now.

• A forgotten fossil just revealed a new Triassic predator from 210 million years ago

  A fossil overlooked for nearly 80 years has revealed a previously unknown crocodile relative that lived 210 million years ago in what is now New Mexico. Named Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa, the jackal-sized predator had a reinforced skull, powerful jaw muscles, and a short snout built for tackling larger prey.

• This 4,000-year-old city defied the rules of history

  As Mohenjo-daro prospered, the gap between its richest and poorest households actually shrank. Its shared infrastructure, fair trade systems, and lack of powerful royal elites suggest that equality may have helped fuel the ancient city’s success.

• AI reveals explosive bursts in bird evolution

  Songbirds appear to have evolved through rare explosions of change separated by long periods of slower development. Many of those bursts lined up with major climate shifts, suggesting that environmental upheaval can reshape life in powerful ways.

• Earth’s hidden “gold kitchen” lies beneath the seafloor

  Deep beneath submarine volcanoes, Earth may be running a natural “gold kitchen.” By analyzing volcanic glass from the Kermadec island arc north of New Zealand, researchers found that water-rich mantle repeatedly melts beneath subduction zones, gradually concentrating gold in rising magma. The process works because intense melting breaks down sulfur-rich minerals that normally trap gold, releasing the metal into the melt.