Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

May 31, 2007

Stowaway Penguins Hop Hemispheres

A Humboldt penguin known only from the Southern Hemisphere but recently found thousands of miles from home likely was a stowaway on a fishing ship, say scientists. The seemingly peripatetic penguin turned up in July 2002 when fisherman Guy Demmert netted an atypical batch of salmon off the coast of...

May 31, 2007

Adoption Group: Cat Invasion Due to Global Warming

Droves of cats and kittens are swarming into animal shelters nationwide, and global warming is to blame, according to one pet adoption group. Several shelters operated by a national adoption organization called Pets Across America reported a 30 percent increase in intakes of cats and kittens from 2005 to 2006,...

May 31, 2007

Dinosaurs Died Agonizing Deaths

Fossilized dinosaurs often have wide-open mouths, heads thrown back and tails that curve toward the head. Paleontologists have long assumed the dinosaurs died in water and the currents drifted the bones into that position, or that rigor mortis or drying muscles, tendons and ligaments contorted the limbs. I'm reading this...

May 31, 2007

Bat Not Blind as a Bat

It's an insult to fruit bats to call someone blind as a bat. Scientists have long known that these banana-loving flying mammals have decent night vision. And now research shows they can see just fine when the sun comes up too. Bats come in two types—microbats (Microchiroptera), which actually are...

May 31, 2007

Bees Have Favorite Color

There might actually be a useful purpose for having a favorite color—at least if you're a bee. The favorite color of the buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), violet in its case, could help it find more sweet nectar, scientists now find. Researchers took bees that had never seen real flowers from...

May 31, 2007

Meep-Meep! 'Road Runner' Dino Discovered

Skeletal remains from a 220-million-year-old dinosaur reveal a prehistoric road runner of sorts, whose svelte figure and long legs allowed it to evade predators lickety-split. The creature stood about 12 inches tall at the hips and weighed just 4.4 pounds. Its head-to-tail length was about 3 feet, with about half...

Apr 30, 2007

Obesity Epidemic Strikes Pets, Too

American pets are facing an obesity epidemic, underscoring the belief that pets and pet owners tend to resemble one another. One-third of dogs in this country are overweight or obese, according to a study published in the April issue of American Journal of Veterinary Research. Previous studies found a third...

Apr 30, 2007

Crabs Shack Up in Safe Sandcastles

Female fiddler crabs find male suitors more attractive if the chaps can arrange safe sand castles for booty calls, new findings suggest. In the animal kingdom, females are often attracted to outrageously showy displays such as a peacock's plumage. If gaudy males can escape from predators despite their flamboyant ornaments...

Apr 30, 2007

Farfetched? Hint of Free Will Found in a Fly

A spark of free will may exist in even the tiny brain of the humble fruit fly, new findings that could shed light on the nature and evolution of free will in humans. Future research delving further into free will could lead to more advanced robots, scientists added. The result,...

Apr 30, 2007

Virgin Shark Gives Birth

Female sharks may not need males around anymore, because they can reproduce without having sex, surprised scientists have found. The startling discovery, announced today, has a long history. It was initially made after the unexpected birth of a baby hammerhead shark in the aquarium of Nebraska’s Henry Doorly Zoo in...

Apr 30, 2007

Top 10 Most Incredible Animal Journeys

Top 10 Most Incredible Animal Journeys Monarch butterflies adorn a thistle. The species is getting walloped by extreme weather. (Image credit: USFWS.)Animals will make extraordinary and often mysterious expeditions to find a good meal, sexy mates, and the perfect place to raise a family. In early spring every 17 years,...

Mar 31, 2007

Study Reveals Why Some Dogs Are So Small

From the Chihuahua that’s tiny enough to fit in a purse, to the most massive mastiff, dogs have an incredible, and scientifically baffling, range in size. “Dogs have the biggest range of sizes of any mammal in existence,” said biologist K. Gordon Lark of the University of Utah. “One of...

Mar 31, 2007

Whales Break Distance Record With 5,100-Mile Migration

A group of humpback whales seeking balmier waters have traveled a record-breaking 5,100 miles, the longest-ever documented migration undertaken by a mammal. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Southern Hemisphere are known to migrate from their high-latitude feeding areas in polar waters, rich in shrimp-like critters, to more tropical regions...

Feb 28, 2007

Caterpillars Click and Puke to Stop Predators

Caterpillars can fend off hungry birds and other predators by clicking at them, scientists now report. These clicks warn that the caterpillars will be unsavory to eat—at least, after they regurgitate a foul brown fluid. To understand the clicking and barfing, neuroethologist Jayne Yack at Carleton University in Ottawa headed...

Feb 28, 2007

Study Reveals Real Reason Birds Migrate

It's food scarcity, not dietary preferences, that motivates birds to migrate thousands of miles back and forth between breeding and non-breeding areas each year, new research shows. It's not whether you eat insects, fruit, nectar or candy bars or where you eat them--it matters how reliable that food source is...