Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2013

Abused Puppies Get More Sympathy Than Adult Crime Victims

People have more empathy for abused puppies and dogs than they do for adult humans who have been abused, a new study suggests. However, empathy for abused children was about the same as that for puppies and dogs, the study found. Researchers surveyed 240 college students and asked them to...

Jul 31, 2013

Mokele-Mbembe: The Search for a Living Dinosaur

Mokele-mbembe supposedly resembles an apatosaurus, which lived more than 65 million years ago. (Image credit: Linda Bucklin Shutterstock)Everyone knows that the dinosaurs died out a while ago — in fact, more than 65 million years ago, give or take. Massive, powerful, and awe-inspiring, they have been popular for years, appearing...

Jul 31, 2013

Caterpillar Can Hop for 3 Days in Leafy 'Sleeping Bag'

Hop over, Mexican jumping beans: Scientists have discovered another fascinating caterpillar species with impressive jumping skills. During its larval stage, the moth Calindoea trifascialis crawls the dry forest floors of southern Vietnam amongst elephants and flying insects, spending most of its time chewing away at a protective, tent-like structure it...

Jul 31, 2013

Shark-Fin Soup Losing its Status as Shark Populations Decline (Op-Ed)

Christine Xu is a programassistant in the China Program and Energy & Transportation Program for the Natural Resources Defense Coundil (NRDC). This post is adapted from one that appeared on the NRDC blog Switchboard. Xu contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Ever since Jaws inflicted a...

Jun 30, 2013

Dolphins Get Free Ride from Gray Whale

Scientists taking stock of cetaceans off California's coast captured an amazing sight from the air: a pod of dolphins enjoying a free ride from a migrating gray whale. In the photo, a dozen long-beaked common dolphins cruise in front of the gray whale, pushed along by the bigger animal's bow...

Jun 30, 2013

Military Sonar May Hurt Blue Whales

The oceans are increasingly cluttered with human-made noise, which can disturb even the largest animals on Earth, blue whales, new research shows. Whales depend on vocalizations to communicate with other individuals in their species over long distances. But sonar blips that the U.S. military uses in underwater navigation, object-detection and...

Jun 30, 2013

Social Networking Animal Style

This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. The curiously clannish behavior of the spotted hyena sparked the interest of Amiyaal Ilany — who grew up surrounded by animals his zoologist father brought home to study. Later, the hyena's social behavior would inspire Ilany's...

Jun 30, 2013

How Taxidermy Keeps Extinct Animals Around

When a giant tortoise named Lonesome George died, his kind, the Pinta Island tortoises of the Galapagos, suffered the same fate as the unfortunate dodo bird: Both bird and tortoise were wiped off their island homes and into extinction. But Lonesome George will be better preserved than any of the...

Jun 30, 2013

Climate Change Could Wipe Out Iberian Lynx

Climate change could ensure the wipe out of the Iberian Lynx, considered the world's most endangered cat, new research from Spain suggests. Currently, about 300 of these adorable, pointy-eared, shaggy-bearded cats live in Spain and Portugal, dining mostly on rabbits. But according to a study publishing today (July 21) in...

Jun 30, 2013

Ratlike Creature's Bizarre Backbone Baffles Scientists

The hero shrew — a small, ratlike animal with a bizarrely strong and oddly shaped backbone — has mystified scientists since it was first described more than 100 years ago. Now, a newly discovered species of hero shrew may help researchers piece together why the animal evolved to have such...

Jun 30, 2013

Photos: The Near-Complete Wankel T. Rex

Wankel T. rex (Image credit: Photo courtesy Museum of the Rockies)A cast of the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as the Wankel T. rex was installed in front of the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana in 2001. The actual fossil specimens are being loaned by...

May 31, 2013

Male Guppies Father Offspring After Death

Death doesn't stop some animals from becoming parents, research reveals. A new study shows that female Trinidadian guppies can store and use sperm from males long after the males die. Up to a quarter of guppy offspring are sired by dead males, maintaining a diverse gene pool even in harsh...

May 31, 2013

Ancient Dinobird Wore Black and White

A transitional species that represents a link between dinosaurs and birds may have sported pale feathers that were dark at the tips, a new study suggests. For the study, detailed in the June 13 issue of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, researchers used an X-ray beam to identify ancient...

May 31, 2013

Fish Diseases Threaten Food Supply In Warm Climates

(ISNS) -- A rise in fish farms has meant cheap, fast-growing protein to feed the world's growing human population. But a new study suggests that countries located at lower latitudes – many of which rely heavily on fish farming – may be most at risk for fish disease outbreaks. The...

May 31, 2013

Animal Sex: How Ants Do It

Ants are social insects belonging to the order Hymenoptera, which also includes wasps and bees. And though people typically don't think of ants as flying insects, ant sex is often a crowded, aerial event not so different from the mating flights of honeybees. Ant society is divided into several castes,...