I just finished reading an interesting article in #QuantaMagazine about recent research on bird eyes. Unlike our inferior mammal eyes, bird eyes lack the network of blood vessels covering the retina. When an optometrist shines a bright light in our eyes, we see a network of blood vessels that block parts of our vision. Sleight of hand from our brain removes this from our perception, but it permanently limits what we see.

Birds retinas don’t do this at all, and it turns out that this is made possible by using a form of glucose-driven metabolism that doesn’t require oxygen. That’s crazy for such an energy intensive tissue. No other species alive today do this, and it likely evolved in dinosaurs.

It’s wild stuff.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-bird-eye-was-pushed-to-an-evolutionary-extreme-20260513/

#birds #evolution #eyes #biology

Some very relevant critical remarks concerning the claim of Colossal, that they have made giant steps in de-extinction ancient giant birds by creating an artificial egg, incubator, that would allow hatching those birds embryos. And critical remarks as well in general on Colossal's claims about resurrect extinct species.
#deextinction #woolymammoth #dodo #moa #evolution

https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2026/05/20/more-on-colossals-futile-efforts-to-de-extinct-ancient-giant-birds/

De‑extinction company says it's made an artificial egg—if true, it could help save living species

Colossal's artificial egg could be groundbreaking science and deliver a useful tool for conservation. But its announcement and slick video include no data or peer-reviewed scientific publications, making it difficult to independently assess the claim. Which has been addressed by Jerry Coyne as well, in his blog Why Evolution Is True.
#evolution #deextinction #dodo #moa

https://phys.org/news/2026-05-deextinction-company-artificial-egg-true.html

The earliest known #eukaryotes, the ancestors of all complex #life on Earth, lived in oxygenated, shallow marine environments nearly 1.7 billion years ago.

The earliest eukaryotes for which we have #fossils lived in predominantly near-shore, oxygenated, benthic (on the seafloor) settings.

This implies that the availability of #oxygen was dictating eukaryote #evolution from its early stages.

#biology #astrobiology
https://astrobiology.com/2026/05/early-complex-life-lived-in-oxygenated-seas-challenging-long-held-views-of-evolution.html

Paper by Lechte et al. (2026):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10533-4