Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 31, 2008

X-ray Vision Spies Dinosaur-Era Bugs

Hundreds of fossilized creatures from the Age of Dinosaurs have been discovered inside a type of amber into which scientists have now glimpsed for the first time. The trove of ancient animals was found in pieces of opaque amber, the secretive sister of the more familiar translucent amber gemstone. Though...

Mar 31, 2008

Grand Canyon Possibly Old as Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs roaming the American Southwest 65 million years ago may have teetered on the edges of an ancient version of the awe-inspiring cliffs and gorges we see today in the Grand Canyon, a new study suggests. The mile-deep canyon in Arizona was formed as the Colorado River scoured through ancient...

Feb 29, 2008

In Photos: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife

Bighorn Sheep (Image credit: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)First listed on March 18, 1998. Range: California. Black-footed Ferret (Image credit: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)First listed on March 11, 1967. It is currently designated as endangered across its range, except where listed as an experimental population. Range: Arizona, Colorado, Montana,...

Feb 29, 2008

Pint-Sized Primates Were First in North America

Leaping, furry mini-monkeys that were as small as mice crossed the Bering land bridge long before humans, representing North America's oldest known primates. This new claim is based on the fossils of at least three individuals of this previously unknown species of extinct primate uncovered at a site near Meridian,...

Feb 29, 2008

Movie Review: 10,000 B.C.

Who doesn’t like historical epics? Costume dramas that give you an up-close-and-personal look at some musty but meaningful period when life was tough, but big things were happening? Well, give director Roland Emmerich credit for attempting a new record in rewinding the clock. He’s dared to take us back to...

Feb 29, 2008

Some Crabs Crabbier Than Others

Is one crab more crabby than another? It could be true. Crabs apparently can have different personalities from one another, the first discovery of personality in crustaceans. People consistently differ from one another in behavior, differences known as personalities. The same is known to hold true in many other animals,...

Feb 29, 2008

Breeding the Overfished Bluefin Tuna

The Atlantic bluefin tuna is so prized for gourmet sushi that it has been overfished to the brink of commercial collapse. Now scientists are studying how to breed these giants in captivity, which could reduce the pressure on wild tuna. Not everyone supports the research, which recently scored its first...

Feb 29, 2008

Fastest Evolving Creature is 'Living Dinosaur'

Scientists have pinned down the fastest-known evolving animal — a living dinosaur called a tuatara. The tuatara, Sphendon punctatus, resembles a lizard and is found only in New Zealand. It is the only surviving member of a reptilian order Sphehodontia that lived alongside early dinosaurs and separated from other reptiles...

Feb 29, 2008

Small Rodents Taught To Use Tools

Researchers in Japan’s Institute of Physical and Chemical Research have taught degus how to use rakes to obtain food. Degus are small rodents closely related to chinchillas. This is apparently the first instance in which rodents have been taught to use tools. The degu is placed on one side of...

Jan 31, 2008

Crikey! How Crocs Digest Animals Whole

Crocodiles are ferocious creatures that will eat snakes, buffalo, cattle and even people. New research explains crocodiles' spectacular method of digesting large meals that lets them eat 23 percent of their body weight at once, bones and all. If people could gorge like crocodiles, a 130-pound woman could down a...

Jan 31, 2008

Dinos' Veggie Diets Packed Surprising Punch

By mimicking the guts of the biggest dinosaurs, scientists now find the animals' diets of evergreens and ferns were more nourishing than previously thought. These new findings help solve the mystery of how such dinosaurs reached huge sizes off seemingly poor food. The largest animals to have ever lived on...

Dec 31, 2007

Study: Monkeys 'Pay' for Sex by Grooming

SINGAPORE (AP) — Male macaque monkeys pay for sex by grooming females, according to a recent study that suggests the primates may treat sex as a commodity. In primate societies, grooming is the underlying fabric of it all, Dr. Michael Gumert, a primatologist at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore,...

Dec 31, 2007

How Spider-Man Compares to the Real Thing

In a culture that finds it hard to love most bugs, spiders are nonetheless the ones we tend to accept or at least admire at a distance for their ingenuity with locomotion, insect hunting and home-building. In each of those areas, the web's the thing, as any Spider-Man fan can...

Dec 31, 2007

Something Fishy About This Dinosaur Discovery

An unusual carnivorous dinosaur whose skull looked part-crocodile may have fancied fish over other meat, research now reveals. These findings suggest the predator's huge fearsome 12-inch-long hand claws might have actually been used as grappling hooks to scoop fish from the water, somewhat like a grizzly bear. The dinosaur in...

Dec 31, 2007

Strange Creature Immune to Pain

As vulnerable as naked mole rats seem, researchers now find the hairless, bucktoothed rodents are invulnerable to the pain of acid and the sting of chili peppers. A better understanding of pain resistance in these sausage-like creatures could lead to new drugs for people with chronic pain, scientists added. Naked...