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
Hammerhead flatworms are often described outside their native range. Scientists have discovered an alien hammerhead flatworm species that looks a bit like a miniature king cobra, or perhaps an itty-bitty snake with a moustache. The researchers found the tiny creatures hunting snails in France and Italy, and they’ve named theContinue Reading
Parasitic gall wasps don’t get out much. For the vast majority of their year-long lives, from eggs to larvae, pupae to adults, these tiny insects are entombed in cocoon-like crypts on the leaves, flowers, and stems of oak trees. When spring rolls around, there’s no time to waste, not evenContinue Reading
Thanks to a combination of sensing the Earth’s magnetic field through vision and an in-built compass that allows them to orient themselves according to magnetic intensity, migratory birds don’t have much trouble finding their way. Those biological gadgets, known as magnetoreception, allow birds to not only know which direction toContinue Reading
Some bears are more aggressive than others, researchers say. A “highly predatory” brown bear woke up from hibernation and killed 38 reindeer calves in a single month, then 18 young moose the next month, according to a new study. The unnamed 13-year-old female was one of 15 brown bears researchersContinue Reading
The trek is the longest ever recorded among hares and their relatives Arctic hares can go the distance. A member of Lepus arcticus in northern Canada has traveled farther than anyone knew possible. BBYY, as the adult female was known, made a wild dash of more than 388 kilometers inContinue Reading
Hippos respond differently to the calls of familiar and unfamiliar hippos. The thunderous calls of common hippos can be heard from more than half a mile (1 kilometer) away — and when a hippo hears the booming call of an unfamiliar hippo, the animal often responds by letting loose aContinue Reading
Were these “jerks of the sea” acting kindly? In a strange encounter off the coast of western Australia, a pod of orcas seems to free a humpback whale from a rope entangling its tail. But were they really trying to rescue it? It isn’t clear whether the orcas (Orcinus orca)Continue Reading
Experts predict that such nonhuman-to-human “xenotransplants” may become a viable option within the next decade It’s an exciting time to be an organ transplant physician. Just two weeks ago, doctors in Baltimore reported completing the first successful transfer of a pig heart into a living human patient. Now pig kidneysContinue Reading