Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 31, 2009

Strange Fish Has See-Through Head

A bizarre deep-water fish called the barreleye has a transparent head and tubular eyes. Since the fish's discovery in 1939, biologists have known the eyes were very good at collecting light. But their shape seemed to leave the fish with tunnel vision. Now scientists say the eyes rotate, allowing the...

Dec 31, 2008

How We Get Our Bearings

Research has suggested that animals and young children mainly rely on geometric cues (lengths, distances, angles) to help them get reoriented after a change of scene. Human adults, however, can also make use of feature cues (color, texture, landmarks) to get a sense of where they are. But which method...

Dec 31, 2008

Dinosaur Wore Primitive Down Coat

The evolution of the flashy down coat has been traced back to 125 million-year-old dinosaur fossils. The feathers were worn by Beipiaosaurus, which is a therizinosaur, small-headed theropods with long necks and giant claws. Most of the dinosaurs' bodies were covered with short and slender feathers that, based on the...

Dec 31, 2008

Sneaky Fish Love Caviar

He's quite handsome and he's got all the right moves. He looks foreign, but his courtship is intoxicating. You decide to spawn with him—oh, yes, I forgot to mention, you're a female fish—and then, the horror! Instead of fertilizing your eggs, the little devil eats them! Such are the games...

Dec 31, 2008

Scientists Zero In on Earth's Original Animal

Sea sponges have been thought by some scientists to be the most primitive living animals, the closest living things to approximate Earth's original animal, down at the base of the tree of life for the animal kingdom. But the squishy things are now being pushed aside by a group of...

Dec 31, 2008

Cows with Names Make More Milk

Researchers in the UK say cows with names make 3.4 percent more milk in a year than cows that just feel, well, like cows. There seems to be more than just names involved, however. The study, involving 516 dairy farmers and published online Tuesday by the journal Anthrozoos, found that...

Nov 30, 2010

Being Bullied Has Its Benefits for Groundhogs

Playing the scapegoat for bullying can actually boost a groundhog's chances of passing on its genes, researchers have found. That's because the victimized animal often enjoys being at the center of a huge social network – a position that has benefits beyond the costs of being bullied. This tactic may...

Nov 30, 2010

Foster Family Created to Help Baby Cheetahs Survive

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute welcomed two furry new additions earlier this month. Two cheetah cubs were born at the Virginia facility on Dec. 6 and Dec. 16 to two different mothers. Although zoo staff say the tiny cats are now doing well, it was rough going for the cubs...

Oct 31, 2010

Rare Cold Water Coral Discovered in Northern Africa

A rare cold water coral reef has been discovered off the coast of Mauritania in Northern Africa, the first time such a reef has been found this far south, according to a new report. In the middle of an enormous rock formation in an undersea canyon, scientists have found a...

Oct 31, 2010

Amazon River Welcomes 180,000 Baby Turtles

An army of tiny baby turtles recently made a determined crawl to the Amazon River, after their release by a conservation group. The adorable creatures, called Arrau River turtles, had been nursed through the most dangerous part of their lives the time just after they hatched before being released into...

Oct 31, 2010

'Match.com for Penguins' Breeds Success at New England Aquarium

The New England Aquarium's most successful African penguin breeding season recently ended with the birth of 11 new chicks, according to aquarium biologists. Those 11 hatchlings have since grown into juveniles and rejoined their parents in the aquarium's African penguin exhibit. [Related: Flightless Birds: All 18 Penguin Species ] This...

Oct 31, 2010

Dino Demise Led to Evolutionary Explosion of Huge Mammals

Mammals around the world exploded in size after the major extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, filling environmental niches left vacant by the loss of dinosaurs, according to a new study published today (Nov. 25) in the journal Science. The maximum size of mammals...

Sep 30, 2010

Name That Baby Kiwi

The Smithsonian National Zoo is giving the public a chance to help decide on a name for one of the zoo's new kiwi chicks, one of the first in the United States to be bred in captivity. Kiwis (Apteryx mantelli) are small, flightless birds unique to New Zealand. The brown...

Sep 30, 2010

New Homes Built for Endangered Galapagos Penguins

In an attempt to boost the population of endangered Galápagos penguins, researchers have been building new nests for them on the islands. Biologists hope that the nests will help increase the population of the endangered Galápagos penguins,which have experienced a population decline of more than 50 percent since the 1970s,...

Sep 30, 2010

Price to Save Species Put at 10 Times Present Spending

World leaders failed to meet a 2010 target for cutting global biodiversity losses, but researchers say that conservation efforts still managed to stave off extinction for some species. Now they warn that countries must spend 10 times as much on conservation to halt the loss of plants and animals in...