Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 31, 2019

Rarely Glimpsed Scaly Pangolins Caught Hugging Trees in the Dark

See more New video of giant pangolins shows these bizarre scaly creatures in their natural (nocturnal) habitat in Uganda. In the videos, the blunt-nosed creatures — which are the only mammals with scales — are seen meandering about the undergrowth, sniffing for food and danger. In one clip, a baby...

Jan 31, 2019

What the Heck Is a Blobfish?

The canonical blobfish picture elicits squeals of delight and shudders of horror, embodying an eye-catching blend of cute and ugly somewhat unfamiliar to the Western aesthetic (although it's rather popular in Japan). With its derpy frown, glistening flesh and an impossibly human-looking nose reminiscent of the schnoz on Ziggy and...

Jan 31, 2019

This Bird's Body Is Half Male, Half Female. So Is Its Brain.

Male cardinals are red. Female cardinals are tan. The odd bird that's been roosting outside Jeff and Shirley Caldwell's kitchen in Erie, Pennsylvania, is an even split of both. Divided down the middle like a winged black-and-white-cookie, the rare cardinal is plumed in feathers that are scarlet on its right...

Dec 31, 2018

Sheep Ain't Baa-aad at Recognizing Faces (But Humans Are Better)

Facial recognition specialists from Australia recently revisited the 2017 study. They admitted that the experiments provided a compelling demonstration that sheep could differentiate between human faces, but they challenged the authors' conclusion that sheep could recognize faces as well as humans and other primates can. As experts in human facial...

Dec 31, 2018

Why This Enormous, Scaly Foot Looks Like It's from a Dinosaur

A photo showing an enormous, scaly foot that dwarfed the photographer's hand recently captivated Twitter. With muscular digits tipped by powerful claws, the appendage resembles a dinosaur's foot — and that's exactly what it is. The foot's owner was an imposing (though deceased) flightless bird called a southern cassowary (Casuarius...

Dec 31, 2018

What's the world's largest dinosaur?

The battle for the title of world's largest dinosaur is complicated. Here's why: Paleontologists rarely discover an entire skeleton. They're more likely to uncover bone fragments and then try to estimate a profile of height and weight. Moreover, there are three categories for largest dinosaur on record: the weightiest, longest...

Dec 31, 2018

Trevor, the World's Loneliest Duck, Has Died As He Lived — Alone in a Puddle

Live Science is sad to report that Trevor the mallard, billed by some as the world's loneliest duck, has died as he lived — alone in a puddle. Known as the only duck on the small west Pacific island of Niue (population around 1,600), Trevor was found dead in the...

Nov 30, 2020

Flying fish: Real fish, but not really flying

In warm ocean waters around the world, you may see a strange sight: A fish leaping from the water and soaring dozens of meters before returning to the ocean's depths. Early Mediterranean sailors thought these flying fish returned to the shore at night to sleep, and therefore called this family...

Sep 30, 2020

How the same tech in your Nintendo Wii is tracking wild and wily wolverines

For ecologists studying wolverines — mid-sized carnivores found across the boreal forest and Arctic tundra of North America, across Europe's Nordic mainland, and throughout the Russian north — technology that you'd find in a smartphone is offering an unparalleled glimpse of how these animals behave. Twenty-five years ago, the only...

Jul 31, 2020

What is taxonomy?

If you saw a feathered, two-footed critter on the lawn, what would you tell people you saw? A robin? A blackbird? How about a dinosaur? From a taxonomist's perspective, you couldn't go wrong with dinosaur. According to taxonomy, the discipline that assigns official scientific names to all known organisms, all...

Jun 30, 2020

Scientists accidentally create 'impossible' hybrid fish

It shouldn't have been possible, but it was: The birth of long-nosed, spiky-finned hybrids of Russian sturgeons and American paddlefish. Hungarian scientists announced in May in the journal Genes that they had accidentally created a hybrid of the two endangered species, which they have dubbed the sturddlefish. There are about...

Jun 30, 2020

Albatrosses: Facts about the biggest flying birds

Albatrosses are big, majestic birds that can be found soaring above most of the world’s oceans. These frequent fliers are known for spending months in the air without touching down, as well as having some unique mating arrangements. However, thanks to harmful fishing techniques and predation by invasive species, albatrosses...

Jun 30, 2020

Ruthless Australian 'assassin flies' named for Thor, Deadpool — and Stan Lee

Quick: Think of the most heroic animal on Earth. If you said the fly — that notoriously annoying insect that eats garbage, breeds in dung and transmits disease all over the world — then you are on the same page as the Australian biology community. Researchers at Australia's federal science...

May 31, 2020

Mysterious scars on Hawaiian shark could be sign of giant squid attack

A rare, multispecies brawl unfolded recently in the deep ocean off the coast of Hawaii. In one corner, an oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) — a 7-foot-long (2.1 meters) predator capable of diving up to 1,000 feet (300 m) below the surface in pursuit of prey. In the other corner…...

Apr 30, 2020

Dogs are being trained to sniff out COVID-19 in humans

Scientists are training dogs to identify COVID-19 by following their noses. A new program at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) is putting noses to the grindstone for disease detection. Researchers are working with dogs to see if the canines' superior sniffers can help with early...