Evolutionary biology

With more than 1,500 deaths reported annually from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Greece is second behind Italy among European Union countries that are facing a health crisis, according to survey data presented in Brussels - ahead of European Antibiotic Awareness Day on Sunday - by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). 

Turkey has ranked the highest in antibiotics use at over 38 defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 people in Europe, where the average antibiotic consumption was nearly 17.9 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report published on Nov. 12.

Antibiotic resistance is highest in Turkey among OECD countries, a Nov. 7 report by the organization showed.

Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria are taking a hefty annual toll on human life, with at least 1,626 fatalities in Greece in 2015, according to a report by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

AFP - A strange fossil that looks a bit like a giant leaf, or a fingerprint the size of a coffee table, has intrigued scientists for decades.

Thousands of the fossils have been found over the past seven decades, revealing that it lived at the bottom of the ocean, without a mouth, intestines or anus, half a billion years ago.

Scientists say they've found the remains of a prehistoric female whose mother was a Neanderthal and whose father belonged to another extinct group of human relatives known as Denisovans.

AFP - Denny was an inter-species love child.

Her mother was a Neanderthal, but her father was Denisovan, a distinct species of primitive human that also roamed the Eurasian continent 50,000 years ago, scientists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Belgian scientists have discovered the oldest ever fossil of the common mouse-eared bat, proving the species already existed more than 33 million years ago.

Several plant species around Turkey are being pushed toward extinction by rapidly expanding human settlements, experts say. The conversion of forest and natural habitats to picnic areas under the name of "natural parks" and the use of concrete floors in these places put various plant species at further risk of extinction.

Global warming could place 25 to 50 percent of species in the Amazon, Madagascar and other bio-diverse areas at risk of localized extinction within decades, a report has said.