Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 31, 2007

Fish Sensory Organ Duplicated for Submarines

Fish use a row of specialized sensory organs along the sides of their bodies, called lateral lines, to hunt for prey, alert them of predators, and aid in synchronized school swimming. Now scientists have developed a lateral line for submaries. Our development of an artificial lateral line is aimed at...

Jan 31, 2007

New Albino Millipedes Discovered in Grand Canyon Caves

Two albino millipedes have come out of their cavernous hiding places to represent an entirely new genus of these leggy organisms. Scientists spotted the millipedes in caves on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon. One species was found in a cave on the South Rim and the other in two...

Dec 31, 2006

Beavers Could Be Frogs Best Friends

Beavers' stream-clogging ways may be pesky to humans, but their dams might be just what some frogs and toads need to survive in their dwindling wetland habitats, a new study concludes. Cam Stevens of the University of Alberta and his colleagues conducted a survey of the calls of male frogs...

Dec 31, 2006

Dogs Get Found, Cats Stay Lost

A lost Fido is more likely to be found than a missing Tabby. Why? Because man’s best friend is more likely to have identification tags and dog owners are more prompt in searching for their missing pets, according to a new study. The findings, published in the Jan. 15 issue...

Nov 30, 2008

Dwarf Crocodiles Split into 3 Species

Looking at the genes of the African dwarf crocodile, researchers found that the group comprises three distinct species rather than one. This finding ends a long debate about the taxonomy of this group, previously thought to consist of two closely related subspecies, and also defines a new, distinct species from...

Nov 30, 2008

Dinosaur Dads Watched Over Eggs

In families of some of the most vicious and carnivorous dinosaurs, dad took care of the developing eggs, possibly laid by more than one mom, a new study suggests. Evidence for dino daddy daycare and potential polygamy comes from the fossilized remains of three dinosaurs sitting on nests. In the...

Nov 30, 2008

Reindeer Could Remain on the Run

Caribou, aka reindeer in North America, could soon become endangered by threats such as oil exploration and climate change, according to a new book. The animals are revered by many cultures and are also central to the health and vitality of the Far North, the authors of Caribou and the...

Oct 31, 2008

Image Gallery: Snakes of the World

Atlantic Salt Marsh Snake (Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)Found only in Florida, the Atlantic Salt Marsh Snake is threatened by waterfront development that eats into its habitat. Broad-banded Copperhead (Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)The copperhead is the most common venomous snake in the Eastern United States....

Oct 31, 2008

Huge Cave Bears: When and Why They Disappeared

Enormous cave bears that once inhabited Europe were the first of the mega-mammals to die out, going extinct around 13 millennia earlier than was previously thought, according to a new estimate. Why'd they go? In part because they were vegetarians. The new extinction date, 27,800 years ago, coincides with a...

Oct 31, 2008

Unraveling the Wonders of Spider Silk

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Spiders have fascinated Cheryl Hayashi since her undergraduate days at Yale, where one day a professor offered her an opportunity that changed her life. Hayashi had to hand-feed the professor’s laboratory colony of tropical...

Sep 30, 2008

Tiny Skull Sheds Light on Strange Dinosaur Diets

A juvenile dinosaur weighing less than two sticks of butter was a toothy hodgepodge equipped with fang-like canines to tear into small mammals, reptiles and insects, as well as flat molars for plant munching. Researchers recently found the skull of this dinosaur called Heterodontosaurus tucki in a drawer at the...

Sep 30, 2008

Ancient Sea Predators Shed Skin Secrets

Predatory reptiles called ichthyosaurs cruised the oceans between 230 million and 90 million years ago. In a classic case of convergent evolution, their body and fin shapes resembled those of today's dolphins, tunas, and great white sharks—the fastest swimmers in the sea. A new study shows that the convergence even...

Sep 30, 2008

Wise Elephants Fear Roads

Endangered forest elephants are avoiding roads at all costs, having learned to associate roads with danger due to rampant poaching in Central Africa. Forest elephants are basically living in fear of their lives in prisons created by roads, lead researcher of a new study on the elephants Stephen Blake, now...

Aug 31, 2008

Ancient Amphibian Had Enormous Teeth

A prehistoric predator that looked like a big crocodile paddled around the Antarctic region 240 million years ago, sporting sizable fangs not only along the edge of its mouth but also halfway down the roof of its mouth. The newly described freshwater species, Kryostega collinsoni, is a temnospondyl, a once-diverse...

Aug 31, 2008

New Rules Advised for Hunting Gorillas, 'Bushmeat'

Bushmeat, or wild-animal game, has long been a food source for people who live in African forests and hunt apes, antelopes and other animals for subsistence. But in recent decades, commercial hunters have started to empty out the forests, especially of primates. So the bushmeat issue has become a vexing...