Genetic sequences called transposons help regulate learning. Octopuses are brainy creatures with sophisticated smarts, and now scientists have uncovered a clue that may partly explain the cephalopods’ remarkable intelligence: Its genes have a genetic quirk that is also seen in humans, a new study finds. The clues that scientists uncoveredContinue Reading
Sleepy skeeters lagged behind well-rested ones when offered a researcher’s leg to feed on Turns out there is rest for the wicked: Sleepy mosquitoes are more likely to catch up on missed z’s than drink blood, a new study finds. Most people are familiar with the aftermath of a poorContinue Reading
Serenading with like voices may help male wood frogs woo females into their pool Loud sounds matter in both car design and frog flirting. So New Hampshire biologists lugged an acoustic camera used by car designers to springtime frog-mating pools to explore female preferences. Now researchers suspect that a male’sContinue Reading
Local authorities suggest the young humpback did it on purpose. Watching a gigantic whale fly through the air as it breaches the ocean’s surface is one of the most beautiful sights in the natural world. But for the crew of one boat in Mexico, that experience quickly turned intoContinue Reading
Most bears live in the Northern Hemisphere; polar bears are no exception. The Arctic and Antarctica, while similar habitats in some ways, are home to very different creatures. Both poles host a variety of seal and whale species, but only the Arctic is home to Earth’s largest bear, the polarContinue Reading
Web vibrations help them coordinate when to strike Pack hunting spiders exist in places other than your nightmares. While most spiders enjoy solitary lives, 20 of the roughly 50,000 known spider species live in colonies. One species, Anelosimus eximius, lives in extremely large colonies of up to 1,000 individual spidersContinue Reading
Do some ants smell like chocolate and blue cheese? Skunks are notoriously stinky. The musk ox, true to its name, emits a musky scent during mating season. And for some lucky owners, dog paws smell like corn chips. But these are not the only members of the animal kingdom thatContinue Reading
A local man took matters into his own hands to save the trapped croc. A 13-foot-long (4 meters) crocodile on an Indonesian island has been freed from an unflattering and potentially harmful motorbike tire that had been stuck around its neck for at least six years. A local man whoContinue Reading
Only the largest males get to mate, so the pressure to eat and grow is extreme If you’re a male northern elephant seal, your car-sized bulk is crucial to your genetic legacy, since only a fraction of the very largest males will have access to mates. Now, scientists have foundContinue Reading
House cat skulls have gotten significantly smaller over the last 10,000 years, and so have their brains. Thousands of years of human dependence has shrunk your cat’s brain, new research suggests. In a study published Jan. 26 in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers compared the cranial measurements (anContinue Reading