Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2010

Dog DNA Diversity Helps Show How Genes Work

Dogs are possibly the most varied-looking mammal species on the planet. It's this diversity of looks that make man's best friend the perfect laboratory for connecting sets of genes to particular traits and understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern variation in dogs as well as humans and other mammals. The...

Feb 28, 2010

Dinosaurs Had Wrists Like Birds

The flexible wrists of birds that let them fold their wings have now been seen in dinosaurs well before flight, scientists find. Dinosaurs such as Velociraptor might have partly folded their feathered arms to protect such plumage from harm's way, researchers explained. The wrists and the feathers in the lineage...

Feb 28, 2010

Pigeons Beat Humans at Solving 'Monty Hall' Problem

Pigeons might do better than humans at game shows, at least on Let's Make A Deal. These new findings — involving the pigeons superior ability to solve a perplexing statistical problem — might in turn shed light on why humans are bad at solving certain kinds of problems, scientists added....

Feb 28, 2010

Do Pregnant Animals Get Morning Sickness?

Many pregnant animals display symptoms similar to those experienced by pregnant women. But not enough research has been done to determine whether pregnant animals suffer from actual morning sickness. The nausea and vomiting that two-thirds of women experience during pregnancy could be the body's way of protecting the fetus from...

Feb 28, 2010

Ancient Blind Snakes Hitched Ride on Drifting Continents

Blind snakes are small worm-like creatures that likely feel their way through underground homes by sensing chemicals through their skin. It turns out, these organisms have been around since 150 million years ago, when the supercontinent called Gondwana was just breaking up, according to new genetic research. The study suggests...

Jan 31, 2010

Pudgy Birds May Migrate Faster

A little extra weight may be a good thing if you're a small migrating bird. Fatter birds of certain species migrate faster than thinner ones, because the chubby birds need less time to stop and replenish their fat reserves, a new study suggests. The study looked at the garden warbler,...

Jan 31, 2010

Ancient Human Ancestors Faced Fearsome Horned Crocodile

A newfound horned crocodile may have been the largest predator encountered by our ancestors in Africa, researchers now suggest. Scientists have even found bones from members of the human lineage bearing tooth marks from this reptile, whose scientific name, Crocodylus anthropophagus, means man-eating crocodile. This predator, which lived some 1.84...

Dec 31, 2009

Image Gallery: Small Sea Monsters

Glyceridae (Image credit: NOAA - Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary)Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, about 17 miles off Sapelo Island, Georgia, is home to a variety of strange creatures. The Glyceridae, or bloodworms, are ferocious epi- and infaunal polychaetes that prey upon small invertebrates. They are errant burrowers that build...

Dec 31, 2009

Spikes on Genitals Help Flies Hook Up

When fruit flies hook up, they really hook up. Scientists now find that spikes on the genitals of male fruit flies literally help them hold onto females. Using a laser, researchers zapped off tiny claw-like spines from the genitals of virgin male fruit flies (Drosophila bipectinata) from Cape Tribulation in...

Dec 31, 2009

Feathered Dinosaurs Leapt from Trees, Not the Ground

Whether birds first evolved flight as ground dwellers or took to the skies from trees has been a longstanding debate. A new study of an ancient four-legged creature called Microraptor gui, poised on the boundary between dinosaurs and birds, suggests that the arboreal, or tree-living, idea may be correct. Microraptor...

Dec 31, 2009

Altruistic Chimpanzees Adopt Orphans

Chimpanzees can be altruistic just like humans, according to a new study that found 18 cases of orphaned chimps being adopted in the wild. The kind-hearted chimp parents were discovered in the Taï forest in the West African country Ivory Coast. The adoptive caregivers, both male and female, devoted large...

Dec 31, 2009

New Tyrannosaur Species Discovered

T. rex's family tree just got one member larger. Scientists unearthed bones from a new dinosaur species, including an adult specimen and bones from a teenager that lived some 75 million years ago. Called Bistahieversor sealeyi, the dinosaur lived about 10 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex appeared on the scene....

Dec 31, 2009

Termite Battles May Explain Evolution of Social Insects

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Natural selection argues for small biological changes that yield greater chances of survival and successful reproduction. Yet, that process does not square well with the evolution of social insects, particularly when their colonies can...

Nov 30, 2011

After Century's Absence, Seabirds' Return Surprises Scientists

Earlier this year, government scientists discovered a welcome bundle of joy: a nest of seabird chicks on the Channel Islands off California's coast. This is the first time baby birds of this species have been seen here since 1912. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Park...

Nov 30, 2011

Bouncing Zoo Babies of 2011

Beautiful Bouncing Babies (Image credit: Ken Bohn, San Diego Zoo)The birth of a baby is always a happy occasion, and particularly so for the myriad animal species found in the world's zoos, many of which are endangered in the wild and count on zoo breeding programs to keep their populations...