Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2009

Marmots Remember Long-Gone Predators

Talk about bearing a grudge! Even though wolves were extirpated from Colorado in the 1930s, yellow-bellied marmots there still fear them, a recent study shows. Foxes, coyotes, and mountain lions all think marmots make a nice meal. But each predator represents a different threat: foxes, for example, usually attack pups,...

Oct 31, 2009

Teensy Chameleon Is New Species

A tiny chameleon species with a scaly horn atop its snout and blue dots on its limbs has been discovered in Tanzanian forests. It would sit quite easily on one finger, said Andrew Marshall of the University of York and Flamingo Land, adding the chameleon's body spans just 2.8 inches...

Oct 31, 2009

Chimps Enjoy a Good Tune, Too

Love of music is universal among people, but when did that taste evolve? Do other primates share our preference for consonant rather than dissonant chords? Cotton-top tamarins do not, according to past research. Our closest cousins, chimpanzees, had never been tested, however—until now. It’s hard for researchers to find a...

Oct 31, 2009

Naked Mole Rats Survive Extreme Oxygen Deprivation

The air in underground colonies of naked mole rats is disgusting and limited, high in carbon dioxide and low in oxygen. If you had to breathe it, you would not only be grossed out, but you'd get brain damage. Yet these blind and nearly hairless creatures have adapted to survive...

Sep 30, 2009

Dragonfly Nymph Attacks Pregnant Mussels

For female freshwater mussels, reproduction is a stressful affair. Now zoologists have discovered an extra burden on pregnant Texas hornshell mussels, Popenaias popeii: an unexpected assailant that eats them away from within. A mussel mom’s stresses start when her fertilized eggs enter tubes within her gills and develop into glochidia,...

Sep 30, 2009

'First Bird' Not Very Bird-Like

A feathered beast that lived some 150 million years ago and which is considered the first bird likely grew more like its sluggish ancestors, the dinosaurs. That's according to new analyses of tiny bone chips taken from Archaeopteryx and detailed this week in the journal PLoS ONE. The study researchers...

Sep 30, 2009

Big Cats Picky About Habitat

Many species of large cats, including the leopard, are particularly fussy about where they live, actively avoiding certain areas, a new study in Tanzania finds. Surprisingly, all the species surveyed tended to avoid croplands, the researchers found, suggesting that habitat conversion to agricultural land could have serious implications for carnivore...

Sep 30, 2009

Flying Reptile May Have Snatched Dinosaurs in Midair

A crow-sized reptile sporting a lengthy tail likely soared through the skies some 160 million years ago, snatching feathered dinosaurs and tiny flying mammals from the air, suggest fossils of a newly identified pterosaur. While paleontologists can't go back in time to watch the in-flight meal capture, the reptile's fossils,...

Sep 30, 2009

Largest Web-Spinning Spider Discovered

About the size of a standard CD, a newly described spider is now considered the largest in a class of web-spinners. Scientists discovered remains of the species of golden orb-weaver, now called Nephila komaci, among museum collections in South Africa and recently more dead specimens from Tembe Elephant Park in...

Sep 30, 2009

Oldest Known Spider Webs Discovered

Silken spider webs dating back some 140 million years have been discovered preserved in amber, scientists announce today. The viscous tree sap flowed over the spider webs before hardening and preserving the contents, which were discovered in Sussex, England. Other bits sealed up in the amber included plant matter, insect...

Aug 31, 2009

Venomous Fish

Venomous Pterois Lionfish (Image credit: Photo Credit: William Leo Smith, AMNH)A new study finds there are more venomous fish than snakes. Here are a few of them, photographed by William Leo Smith of the American Museum of Natural History. Venomous Pterois Lionfish. Venomous Pterois Lionfish (Image credit: Photo Credit: William...

Aug 31, 2009

Scientists See Rare Turtle for First Time in the Wild

Known only by museum specimens and a few captive individuals, one of the world’s rarest turtle species – the Arakan forest turtle – has been observed for the first time in the wild. A Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) team discovered five of the critically endangered turtles in a wildlife sanctuary...

Aug 31, 2009

Chimps Catch Yawns from Cartoon

In a bizarre twist on the odd phenomenon of contagious yawning, chimps have been found to yawn when they watch an animated chimp do so. Scientists don't know for sure why yawning is contagious in humans, but the phenomenon is recognized as real. Researchers suspect it has to do with...

Aug 31, 2009

Electric Fish Equipped With 'Dimmer' Switch

Fish that generate electric fields to navigate, fight and attract mates are equipped with a dimmer switch of sorts that can turn down their signals to save energy, a new study finds. Electric fish, such as some sharks and eels, emit weak electrical signals from a battery-like organ in their...

Jul 31, 2009

'Two-Headed' Snake Fakes Predators

One species of venomous sea snake shows the advantages of being two-faced. This slithering reptile twists its tail so its hind end appears to predators as a second head. The clever sea snake, called the yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrine), relies on the ruse to keep it safe from sharks...