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High-ranking hyena mothers pass their social networks to their cubs
Group of hyenas on the landscape

Hyenas benefit from being born to high-ranking mothers, from whom they inherit their social networks, according to research led by biologists from Penn and Michigan State University. (Image: Kate Shaw Yoshida)

High-ranking hyena mothers pass their social networks to their cubs

Using 27 years of detailed data on hyena social interactions, a team led by Penn biologists nailed down a pattern of social network inheritance and its implications for social structure, rank, and survival.

Katherine Unger Baillie

For early amphibians, a new lifestyle meant a new spine
Paleontologist in a lab with a sign saying "Dinosaurs" and fossil specimens in the background

Aja Carter and colleagues found that amphibian vertebrae acquired modifications as their habitat shifted from water to land and back. (Pre-pandemic photo)

For early amphibians, a new lifestyle meant a new spine

Moving from water to land and back again corresponded with distinct changes in animals’ spinal morphology, according to a new study led by paleontologist Aja Carter.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Newly described horned dinosaur from New Mexico was the earliest of its kind
Illustration of a horned dinosaur in a jungle setting

A team from Penn and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History described Menefeeceratops sealeyi, a horned dinosaur found in New Mexico that predates its relative Triceratops. (Image: Sergey Kasovskiy)

Newly described horned dinosaur from New Mexico was the earliest of its kind

With a frilled head and beaked face, Menefeeceratops sealeyi lived 82 million years ago, predating its relative, Triceratops. Researchers including Peter Dodson, of the School of Veterinary Medicine, and Steven Jasinski, who recently earned his doctorate from the School of Arts & Sciences, describe the find.

Katherine Unger Baillie

‘Pompeii of prehistoric plants’ unlocks evolutionary secret
Fossil plants with a ruler that says Geology at Penn

Ash from a volcanic eruption 300 million years ago helped preserve an ancient forest, including foliage of newly characterized noeggerathialean plants. (Image: Hermann Pfefferkorn)

‘Pompeii of prehistoric plants’ unlocks evolutionary secret

An international research team, including Hermann Pfefferkorn of the School of Arts & Sciences, has solved the mystery of where 300-million-year-old specimens fit into the plant family tree.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Merging big data and marine biology
Student Ashna Sethi

Merging big data and marine biology

Junior Ashna Sethi found an opportunity to delve into one of her passions this summer with paleobiologist Lauren Sallan’s lab in the School of Arts & Sciences.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Cave discovery holds clues to earliest Homo sapiens in Europe
People squatting in a cave with face masks on, digging through dirt and clay.

Excavations in Initial Upper Paleolithic Layer I at Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria. Four Homo sapiens bones were recovered from this layer, along with a rich stone tool assemblage, animal bones, bone tools, and pendants. (Pre-pandemic image: Tsenka Tsanova, MPI EVA Leipzig, License: CC-BY-SA 2.0)

Cave discovery holds clues to earliest Homo sapiens in Europe

Ancient DNA from 46,000-year-old bone fragments and a tooth reveals this group likely overlapped with Neanderthals for thousands of years.

Michele W. Berger

New feathered dinosaur was one of the last surviving raptors
Illustration showing three feathered dinosaurs in and near a stream with other large dinosaurs nearby

Dineobellator notohesperus is the name of a newly discovered species of dinosaur, that lived near the end of the reign of dinosaurs (Image: Sergey Krasovskiy)

New feathered dinosaur was one of the last surviving raptors

Dineobellator notohesperus lived 67 million years ago. Steven Jasinski, who recently earned his doctorate from the School of Arts and Sciences working with Peter Dodson, also of the School of Veterinary Medicine, led the effort to describe the find.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment
People in fishing boats on the water

Aunifying game theory model describing the feedbacks that occur between strategic decision making and environmental change captured dynamics that occur in fisheries, in human social interactions, in soil-microbe interactions, and much more. (Image: Erol Akçay) 

Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment

With a unifying model based in game theory, Andrew Tilman, Joshua Plotkin, and Erol Akçay of the School of Arts and Sciences inform dynamics in fields as diverse as ecology and economics.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Genes play a role in dog breed differences in behavior
Row of six adorable and different dog breeds

Genes play a role in dog breed differences in behavior

Border collies are highly trainable, greyhounds love to chase, and German shepherds make good guard dogs. While the environment plays a role, traits like these are highly heritable. A new study identifies 131 genetic variants associated with breed differences in behavior.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Fruit flies’ microbiomes shape their evolution
fruit fly close-up on a piece of vegetation

An ambitious outdoor experiment in fruit flies at Pennovation Works revealed that an altered microbiome can drive evolutionary change. (Photo: Seth Rudman)

Fruit flies’ microbiomes shape their evolution

In just five generations, an altered microbiome can lead to genome-wide evolution in fruit flies, according to new research led by Paul Schmidt and postdoc Seth Rudman of the School of Arts and Sciences.

Katherine Unger Baillie