Why do dogs’ noses usually feel cold and wet? After an especially good belly rub, a dog might bump its nose into its human as a way of saying thanks. Often, this snoot boop feels cold and wet. The owner might wonder: Is it normal for a dog’s nose toContinue Reading
Parenting is tough work for freshwater gharials. Picking the kids up from school takes on a different meaning for crocodylian parents. In this photo, taken by India-based photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee, a male freshwater gharial shows us why. Bobbing in the waters of northern India’s National Chambal Sanctuary, the croc waitsContinue Reading
A new study suggests hibernation is an ancient adaptation to harsh winters. Some 250 million years ago, a Seussian-looking beast with clawed digits, a turtle-like beak and two tusks may have survived Antarctica’s chilly winters not by fruitlessly foraging for food, but by curling up into a sleep-like state, meaningContinue Reading
The mummy had an undigested piece of woolly rhino in its stomach. Just before a tiny pup died during the last ice age, it ate a piece of meat from one of Earth’s last woolly rhinos. Researchers made this discovery while doing a necropsy (an animal autopsy) on the mummifiedContinue Reading
It’s related to an elephant, has a long nose, a fur tuft on its tail and big, spectacled eyes. A teensy animal, with a long nose, a fur tuft on its tail and big, spectacled eyes hadn’t been seen in nearly half a century. That is, until a whiff ofContinue Reading
Microscopy revealed the stunning compound structure in trilobite eyes. Trilobites: Those ubiquitous, half-billion-year-old armored sea bugs — had eyes that were faceted like disco balls. Now, new images reveal that these eyes were remarkably similar to those of bees and dragonflies. Trilobites were buglike, many-legged marine arthropods that appeared duringContinue Reading
This enormous predator had jaws powerful enough to subdue massive dinosaur prey. An enormous Cretaceous crocodile relative hunted dinosaurs, ripping them apart using powerful jaws lined with teeth “the size of bananas,” researchers say. Known as Deinosuchus, which means “terrible crocodile” in Greek, this lineage of semiaquatic reptiles certainly livedContinue Reading
The jury is still out. In recent years, the notion of an insect apocalypse has become a hot topic in the conservation science community and has captured the public’s attention. Scientists who warn that this catastrophe is unfolding assert that arthropods — a large category of invertebrates that includes insectsContinue Reading
Talk about leaving a bad taste in the mouth. When scientists recently X-rayed a fish’s head, they found a gruesome stowaway: A “vampire” crustacean had devoured, then replaced, its host’s tongue. The buglike isopod, also called a tongue biter or tongue-eating louse, keeps sucking its blood meals from a fish’sContinue Reading
Talk about leaving a bad taste in the mouth. When scientists recently X-rayed a fish’s head, they found a gruesome stowaway: A “vampire” crustacean had devoured, then replaced, its host’s tongue. The buglike isopod, also called a tongue biter or tongue-eating louse, keeps sucking its blood meals from a fish’sContinue Reading