Showing 20 articles starting at article 181

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Ecology: Animals, Offbeat: General

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using genomes from 2,000 living humans as well as three Neanderthals and one Denisovan, an international team mapped the gene flow between the hominin groups over the past quarter-million years.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An invasive fungus that colonizes the skin of hibernating bats with deadly consequences is a stealthy invader that uses multiple strategies to slip into the small mammals' skin cells and quietly manipulate them to aid its own survival. The fungus, which causes the disease white-nose syndrome, has devastated several North American species over the last 18 years.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The flow of water within a muscle fiber may dictate how quickly muscle can contract, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The ability of salmon hatcheries to increase wild salmon abundance may come at the cost of reduced diversity among wild salmon, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Cooperative hunting, resource sharing, and using the same signals to communicate the same information -- these are all examples of cultural sharing that have been observed between distinct animal species. In a new article, researchers introduce the term 'co-culture' to describe cultural sharing between animal species. These relationships are mutual and go beyond one species watching and mimicking another species' behavior -- in co-cultures, both species influence each other in substantial ways.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers have trained a humanoid robot to perform a variety of expressive movements, from simple dance routines to gestures like waving, high-fiving and hugging, all while maintaining a steady gait on diverse terrains. This work marks a step towards building robots that perform more complex and human-like motions.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Native plants and non-native crops do not fare well in proximity to one another, attracting pests that spread diseases in both directions, according to two new studies.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The qualities and behavior of dark matter, the invisible 'glue' of the universe, continue to be shrouded in mystery. Though galaxies are mostly made of dark matter, understanding how it is distributed within a galaxy offers clues to what this substance is, and how it's relevant to a galaxy's evolution.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international research team has assembled the genome and 3D chromosomal structures of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth -- the first time such a feat has been achieved for any ancient DNA sample. The fossilized chromosomes, which are around a million times longer than most ancient DNA fragments, provide insight into how the mammoth's genome was organized within its living cells and which genes were active within the skin tissue from which the DNA was extracted. This unprecedented level of structural detail was retained because the mammoth underwent freeze-drying shortly after it died, which meant that its DNA was preserved in a glass-like state.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The surprising discovery of a new species of extinct crocodile relative from the Triassic Favret Formation of Nevada, USA, rewrites the story of life along the coasts during the first act of the Age of Dinosaurs. The new species Benggwigwishingasuchus eremicarminis reveals that while giant ichthyosaurs ruled the oceans, the ancient crocodile kin known as pseudosuchian archosaurs ruled the shores across the Middle Triassic globe between 247.2 and 237 million years ago.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A record-breaking swim by two lion brothers across a predator-infested African river has been documented in a new study. The researchers say the 1km swim is another example of iconic wildlife species having to make tough decisions to find homes and mates in a human-dominated world.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The question of whether Mars ever supported life has captivated the imagination of scientists and the public for decades. Central to the discovery is gaining insight into the past climate of Earth's neighbor: was the planet warm and wet, with seas and rivers much like those found on our own planet? Or was it frigid and icy, and therefore potentially less prone to supporting life as we know it? A new study finds evidence to support the latter by identifying similarities between soils found on Mars and those of Canada's Newfoundland, a cold subarctic climate.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers have developed a new soft, flexible device that makes robots move by expanding and contracting -- just like a human muscle. To demonstrate their new device, called an actuator, the researchers used it to create a cylindrical, worm-like soft robot and an artificial bicep. In experiments, the cylindrical soft robot navigated the tight, hairpin curves of a narrow pipe-like environment, and the bicep was able to lift a 500-gram weight 5,000 times in a row without failing.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The most complete dinosaur discovered in the UK in the last 100 years, with a pubic hip bone the size of a 'dinner plate', has been described in a new article.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Wolves returned to Washington state in 2008. A new study shows that, despite their rising numbers, wolves are not having much of an impact on white-tailed deer, one of their primary prey. Scientists report that the biggest factor shaping white-tailed deer populations in northeast Washington is the quality of habitat available, which is largely determined by human activity. Cougars were second in their impact. Wolves were a distant third.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Up to 60% of near-Earth objects could be dark comets, mysterious asteroids that orbit the sun in our solar system that likely contain or previously contained ice and could have been one route for delivering water to Earth, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers discovered that feedback plus cash incentives designed with insights from behavioral science reduces phone use while driving.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Most known black holes are either extremely massive, like the supermassive black holes that lie at the cores of large galaxies, or relatively lightweight, with a mass of under 100 times that of the Sun. Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are scarce, however, and are considered rare 'missing links' in black hole evolution.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new paper reveals that it's not as straightforward as it might seem. Despite decades of data collection by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has been valuable to monitor changes in areas occupied by illegal coca plantations in South America, there is no reliable scientific method to distinguish between different types of coca plants.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Unique recordings show that bats can ramp up heart rate from 6 to 900 b.p.m within minutes.