Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2006

Greatest Mass Extinction Gave Oceans a Face Lift

The largest extinction in Earth's history not only wiped out 95 percent of sea creatures and 70 percent of land animals, it also gave the oceans a fundamental face lift, according to a new study. Before the end-Permian mass extinction 250 million years ago, the seas were home to a...

Oct 31, 2006

Female Chimps Fight Back

Female chimpanzees in the wild form coalitions to retaliate against aggressive males, a new study reveals. Nicholas Newton-Fisher of the University of Kent studied a community of eight adult male and 21 adult female East African chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest, Uganda. The females were subject to frequent aggression by...

Sep 30, 2006

Mammal Extinction Blamed on Earth's Wobble

The emergence and disappearance of species of mammals could be due to wobbles in the Earth's orbit, suggests a new study. Surveying 22 million years of rodent fossil records, researchers found that peak species turnover corresponded to variations in the shape of the planet's orbit around the Sun, which oscillates...

Sep 30, 2006

Ancient Miniature Buffalo Discovered

The bones of an extinct dwarf species of buffalo were recently unearthed on the Philippine island of Cebu. Dubbed Bubalus cebuensis (BOO-buh-luhs seh-boo-EN-sis), the miniature buffalo [image] stood at just more than two feet, three times smaller than today's domestic buffalo, and weighed a mere 350 pounds. It probably lived...

Sep 30, 2006

Sucking Up: Why Monkeys Groom the Boss

Sucking up to win the support of the boss dates back to our furry ancestors. The motivation, for monkeys, is life and death. Rather than grabbing coffee for the CEO, monkeys have for eons picked dead skin and bugs from the fur of higher-ranking monkeys. They do it in exchange...

Sep 30, 2006

Diet Linked to Brain Size in Primates

Brain tissue is expensive for a body to produce, so when times are tough, some primates go with a smaller noodle, a new study suggests. Scientists compared orangutans living on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The subspecies Pongo pygmaeus morio, living in northeastern part of Borneo where food...

Sep 30, 2006

Tool Time: Crows Share Tricks of the Trade

Bird brained they might be, but crows are the MacGyvers of the avian world, able to turn twigs and even their own feathers into tools for getting at hard-to-reach food. But while young crows are born with a propensity for crafting tools, it's only after watching their elders make and...

Aug 31, 2006

Mother Deer Can't Recognize Fawn's Cry

Fawns are keenly tuned to their mothers' voices, but female fallow deer can't recognize their own offspring based on sound alone, a new study finds. The imbalance is an example of how the type of environment a species lives in affects how parents and offspring communicate, the researchers say. Using...

Aug 31, 2006

Unknown Dinosaurs: Golden Age of Discovery Ahead

The next several decades could prove a golden age for dinosaur hunters looking to discover new species of the ancient reptiles. A new statistical analysis predicts that more than 1,300 unique dinosaur genera await discovery by paleontologists. In biology, a genus is an organizational group made up of one or...

Aug 31, 2006

Wild Chimps Use Crossing Guards

Elementary school children aren't the only ones who need crossing guards. Scientists report that wild chimpanzees safely cross roads with the aid of adult males that serve as traffic patrollers. Dominant male chimpanzees walk ahead of their groups and evaluate risks of crossing a road before signaling the rest of...

Aug 31, 2006

Vicious Ants Made to Attack Their Own

They may be tiny, but Argentine ants can kick some ant butt. This invasive species has nearly wiped out native ants in California. Now scientists have discovered a way to turn one of the ants' strongest weapons into a weakness. By altering the identifying chemicals coating the ants' bodies, researchers...

Aug 31, 2006

Some Fish Sniff Out Their Siblings

In the fish world, traditional roles are typically reversed with the male building the nest, completing nest-keeping tasks, and protecting and caring for the young. Since female fish lay their eggs in an already-built nest before swimming away, the hard work ensures a male fish will pass along his genes....

Aug 31, 2006

Scientists Protest Dolphin Slaughter

Each September a months-long ritual starts up again in the Japanese villages of Taiji and Futo. Fishermen herd hundreds of dolphins into shallow bays by banging on partially submerged rods. Researchers say the dolphins are corralled into nets and then speared, hooked, hoisted by their tails [image], and finally eviscerated...

Aug 31, 2006

Odd Evolution: Crickets Lose Their Song

In just a few generations, the male crickets on Kauai underwent a drastic genetic change that rendered them incapable of belting out courtship songs, according to a new study. Typically, male field crickets sport curved wings, and by rubbing a sharp ridge of one wing with a rough part of...

Aug 31, 2006

Shark Slaughter: 73 Million Killed Each Year

The world's booming shark fin trade is killing up to 73 million sharks per year—about three times more than the official catch number reported to the United Nations, a new study concludes. The findings, derived using data collected from illegal shark fin traders, are detailed in the October issue of...