Silver-tongued humans may owe their language prowess to a foxy friend. A new study provides more evidence that the human version of a protein known as FOXP2 may have aided the evolution of language.

Chimpanzees and many other animals have FOXP2, but the human version differs at two links in the chain of amino acids that make up the protein. Scientists have suspected that those two changes were not merely cosmetic, but might alter the way FOXP2 functions, perhaps paving the way for the evolution of language. The new study finds that human FOXP2, compared with the chimp version, alters the activity of at least 116 genes in brain cells. Of the affected genes, 61 showed higher activity with human FOXP2 than the chimp form. Many of those genes are involved in neural development and the production of collagen, cartilage and soft tissues — suggesting that the protein may play roles in shaping both the brain and the vocal apparatus that makes speech possible.

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An international team of researchers has discovered evidence at the molecular level in support of key tenets of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Our cells, and the cells of all organisms, are composed of molecular machines. These machines are built of component parts, each of which contributes a partial function or structural element to the machine. How such sophisticated, multi-component machines could evolve has been somewhat mysterious, and highly controversial. New research shows that these machines were a result of evolution.

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A little volcanic ash in Germany kept a 47-million-year-old small primate fossil from the Eocene looking pretty darn good. The 95-percent-complete skeleton is the most complete fossil primate ever found, researchers report online May 19 in PLoS ONE, and it offers an unparalleled glimpse at the life and times of an early primate.

Since its debut, some have heralded the small primate, named Ida, as a missing link in human evolution. But, “We don’t think this particular fossil or species is the direct ancestor of humans,” says study coauthor Holly Smith of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. More research will be needed to understand where the fossil fits into the primate picture, she says.

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Footprints preserved at an African site suggest that the feet of a 1.5 million-year-old human ancestor looked much like those of people today. Human ancestors created some remarkably lasting impressions on the eastern African landscape around 1.5 million years ago. Walking across a muddy patch of terrain near what’s now Ileret, Kenya, these ancient individuals left footprints that hardened and have now been excavated by a team of scientists. On close inspection, the preserved footprints provide the oldest evidence for a virtually modern-human foot and walking style in a human ancestor.

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After a mad scramble, researchers have completed a rough draft of a female Neandertal genome, which will offer a new view of Homo sapiens as well as our extinct cousins. The rough draft of the Neandertal nuclear genome may usher in a brave new world of research on these extinct humans, but after 150 years of study, we already know a few things about them.

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The earliest members of the human family known outside Africa managed to trek all the way across Africa and the Middle East with the most primitive kind of stone tools known rather than with more sophisticated stone hand axes that were thought to be essential for intercontinental travel, it was announced at the AAAS meeting

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Michael Sanderson is worried. Dr. Sanderson, a biologist at the University of Arizona, is part of an effort to figure out how all the estimated 500,000 species of plants are related to one another. For years now the researchers have sequenced DNA from thousands of species from jungles, tundras and museum drawers. They have used supercomputers to crunch the genetic data and have gleaned clues to how today’s diversity of baobabs, dandelions, mosses and other plants evolved over the past 450 million years. The pace of their progress gives Dr. Sanderson hope that they will draw the entire evolutionary tree of plants within the next few years. “It’s within striking distance,” Dr. Sanderson said.

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The year 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. But just a decade later Darwin was already worrying about the evolution of his idea: “If I lived twenty more years and was able to work, how I should have to modify the Origin, and how much the views on all points will have to be modified! Well, it is a beginning, and that is something.” Calling the Origin a mere “beginning” is like saying the Beatles were just a rock band

Today, 150 years later, scientists continue to grapple with ideas descended from that foundation. Still, Darwin’s central tenets survive, fit enough to frame the questions posed by modern biology.

If Darwin came back, “in some ways he would be mystified,” says evolutionary biologist Douglas Futuyma of Stony Brook University in New York. “Evolutionary biology has been radically changed — and deeply enriched.”

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In a gripping instance of Stone Age survival, Neandertals used a tarlike substance to fasten sharpened stones to handles as early as 70,000 years ago, a new study suggests. The new age of 70,000 years ago places the practice earlier than a previous finding of 40,000-year-old stone artifacts unearthed at the same location.

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Newly analyzed vials hosted contents of an experiment testing whether life could originate in a volcano’s local environment.

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