Odd Creatures: Plants & Animals
April 29, 2024
Top Headlines
Apr. 29, 2024 — When hunting for mice in winter, red and arctic fox are known to plunge headfirst at speeds of 2-4 meters per second, but their sharp noses reduce the impact force in snow and protect them from injury, according to a new ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Oncorhynchus rastrosus, a giant species of salmon that lived in the North American Pacific Northwest a few million years ago, sported a pair of front teeth that projected out from the sides of its mouth like tusks, according to a new ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — Greening the way we eat needn't mean going vegetarian. A healthy, more realistic solution is to adopt a flexitarian diet where seafoods add umami to 'boring' vegetables. A gastrophysicist puts ...
Apr. 29, 2024 — Dinosaurs were likely as smart as reptiles but not as intelligent as ...
Latest Headlines
updated 10:58pm EDT
Apr. 25, 2024 — Different types of barley recruit distinct communities of soil microbes to grow around their roots by releasing a custom mix of sugars and other ...
Apr. 26, 2024 — Are mice clever enough to be strategic? A neuroscientist who studies learning in humans and animals, and who has long worked with mice, wondered why rodents often performed poorly in tests when they ...
Apr. 26, 2024 — Using environmental DNA analysis, an international team of researchers identified a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah in Mexico. The plants, known ...
Apr. 25, 2024 — Mice lacking an olfactory system have had their sense of smell restored with neurons from rats, the first time scientists have successfully integrated the sensory apparatus of one species into ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago in a group of marine invertebrates called octocorals, according to the results of a new study. The study focuses on an ancient ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Their first vocalizations help young zebra finch males to memorize the songs of ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Cells constantly navigate a dynamic environment, facing ever-changing conditions and challenges. But how do cells swiftly adapt to these environmental fluctuations? A new study is answering that ...
Apr. 25, 2024 — How do birds fly in a coordinated and seemingly effortless fashion? Part of the answer lies in precise, and previously unknown, aerodynamic ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Every cuckoo is an adopted child -- raised by foster parents, into whose nest the cuckoo mother smuggled her egg. The cuckoo mother is aided in this subterfuge by her resemblance to a bird of prey. ...
Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers explain the genomic and developmental basis of the patagium, the thin skin membrane that allows some mammalian species to soar through the ...
Earlier Headlines
Apr. 23, 2024 — The day a male spear squid hatches determines which mating tactic he will use throughout his life, according to new research. Spear squid (Heterololigo bleekeri) that hatch earlier in the season ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — When we think of evolution, we think of a process that happens over hundreds or thousands of years. In research recently published, a species of frog that has evolved over the course of merely 25 ...
Apr. 23, 2024 — Palaeontologists have solved a hundred-year-old mystery of how some fossil frogs preserve their fleshy parts -- it's all down to their skin. Palaeontologists studied 45-million-year-old fossil ...
Apr. 19, 2024 — What can be done when one threatened animal kills another? Scientists studying critically endangered lemurs in Madagascar confronted this difficult reality when they witnessed attacks on lemurs by ...
Apr. 18, 2024 — A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved and heavy stone, has been developed by ...
Apr. 17, 2024 — The fossilized remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two meters long has been found on a beach in Somerset, ...
Apr. 17, 2024 — Chattering squirrels, charming coypus, and tail-slapping beavers -- along with some other rodents -- have orange-brown front teeth. Researchers have produced high-resolution images of rodent ...
Apr. 17, 2024 — To make weeding easier, scientists suggest bioengineering crops to be colorful or to have differently shaped leaves so that they can be more easily distinguished from their wild and weedy ...
Apr. 16, 2024 — Young male blue tits are less successful in fathering offspring outside their breeding pair, not because of a lack of experience, but because they are outcompeted by older males, researchers ...
Apr. 16, 2024 — Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery regarding number sense in animals by confirming the existence of discrete number sense in rats, offering a crucial animal model for investigating the ...
Apr. 15, 2024 — An international team of scientists has published a single-cell atlas for Pristina leidyi (Pristina), the water nymph worm, a segmented annelid with extraordinary regenerative abilities that has ...
Apr. 15, 2024 — A series of whole genome and gene duplication events that go back hundreds of millions of years have laid the foundations for tissue-specific gene expression, according to a new study. The ...
Apr. 15, 2024 — Sport junkie or couch potato? Always on time or often late? The animal kingdom, too, is home to a range of personalities, each with its own lifestyle. Biologists report on a surprising discovery: ...
Apr. 15, 2024 — In the sun-scorched Pilbara region of north-western Australia, scientists have unearthed a mysterious creature from the shadows -- a new ant species called Leptanilla ...
Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers show that ozone levels, such as those found in many places on hot summer days today, destroy the sex pheromones of fruit fly species. As a result, some natural mating boundaries ...
Apr. 9, 2024 — Scientists from Macquarie University have come up with an innovative way to stop cane toads killing native wildlife by training goannas to avoid eating the deadly ...
Apr. 9, 2024 — Several similar large, fossilized bone fragments have been discovered in various regions across Western and Central Europe since the 19th century. The animal group to which they belonged is still the ...
Apr. 8, 2024 — Genetic analysis finds evidence suggesting that acoustic fat bodies in the heads of toothed whales were once the muscles and bone marrow of the ...
Apr. 8, 2024 — Scientists are amazed at the discovery of a bristle worm with such sharp-seeing eyes that they can measure up to those of mammals and octopuses. The researchers suspect that these marine worms may ...
Apr. 3, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new bacterial killer that can target common lung infection caused by Burkholderia bacteria that has exciting potential for biotechnological ...
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
- Squids' Birthday Influences Mating
- Frog Species Evolved Rapidly in Response to Road Salts
- Fossil Frogs Share Their Skincare Secrets
Friday, April 19, 2024
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
- Paleontologists Unearth What May Be the Largest Known Marine Reptile
- Study Finds Iron-Rich Enamel Protects, but Doesn't Color, Rodents' Orange-Brown Incisors
- Making Crops Colorful for Easier Weeding
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Monday, April 15, 2024
- Unlocking the 'chain of Worms'
- Evolution's Recipe Book: How 'copy Paste' Errors Cooked Up the Animal Kingdom
- Even the Simplest Marine Organisms Tend to Be Individualistic
- Leptanilla Voldemort, a Ghostly Slender New Ant Species from the Dark Depths of the Underground
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
- 'Teacher Toads' Can Save Native Animals from Toxic Cane Toads
- Do Some Mysterious Bones Belong to Gigantic Ichthyosaurs?
Monday, April 8, 2024
- Toothed Whale Echolocation Organs Evolved from Jaw Muscles
- Mediterranean Marine Worm Has Developed Enormous Eyes
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
- Giant Phage Holds Promise as Treatment for Lung Infections
- Plastic-Free Vegan Leather That Dyes Itself Grown from Bacteria
- We've Had Bird Evolution All Wrong
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
- Rock-Wallaby Bite Size ‘packs a Punch’
- Scientists Extract Genetic Secrets from 4,000-Year-Old Teeth to Illuminate the Impact of Changing Human Diets Over the Centuries
- Secrets of the Naked Mole-Rat: New Study Reveals How Their Unique Metabolism Protects Them from Heart Attacks
- Milk on Ice: Antarctic Time Capsule of Whole Milk Powder Sheds Light on the Enduring Qualities--and Evolution--of Dairy Products Past and Present
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
- Researchers Show That Introduced Tardigrade Proteins Can Slow Metabolism in Human Cells
- Two Coral Snakes Recorded Battling for Prey in a Scientific First
Monday, March 25, 2024
Friday, March 22, 2024
- Research Uncovers a Rare Resin Fossil Find: A Spider That Aspires to Be an Ant
- Signs of Life Would Be Detectable in Single Ice Grain Emitted from Extraterrestrial Moons
- Tudor Era Horse Cemetery in Westminster Revealed as Likely Resting Place for Elite Imported Animals
Thursday, March 21, 2024
- Researchers Name Prehistoric Amphibian Ancestor Discovered in Smithsonian Collection After Kermit the Frog
- Heat to Blame for Space Pebble Demise
- Decoding the Plant World's Complex Biochemical Communication Networks
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
- Deep Earth Electrical Grid Mystery Solved
- Across Oceans and Millennia: Decoding the Origin and History of the Bottle Gourd
- In Flies, a Single Brain Cell Can Drive Multiple Movements of the Body
- Eyes Open and Toes out of Water: How a Giant Water Bug Reached the Island of Cyprus
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
- Fairy Circles: Plant Water Stress Causes Namibia's Gaps in Grass
- Why Do Tree Frogs Lay Their Eggs on the Ground?
Monday, March 18, 2024
- Tanks of the Triassic: New Crocodile Ancestor Identified
- Backyard Insect Inspires Invisibility Devices, Next Gen Tech
- Genetic Basis for the Evolution of Hair Discovered in the Clawed Frog
Friday, March 15, 2024
- DNA Origami-Based Vaccines Toward Safe and Highly-Effective Precision Cancer Immunotherapy
- Protein Fragments ID Two New 'extremophile' Microbes--and May Help Find Alien Life
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
- Sonic Youth: Healthy Reef Sounds Increase Coral Settlement
- Milk to the Rescue for Diabetics? Cow Produces Human Insulin in Milk
- Who Knew That Coprophagy Was So Vital for Birds' Survival?
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Monday, March 11, 2024
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Friday, March 8, 2024
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
- Bee-2-Bee Influencing: Bees Master Complex Tasks Through Social Interaction
- New Deep-Sea Worm Discovered at Methane Seep Off Costa Rica
- Genetic Mutation in a Quarter of All Labradors Hard-Wires Them for Obesity
- Do Some Electric Fish Sense the World Through Comrades' Auras?
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
- Tiny Worms Tolerate Chornobyl Radiation
- Fossils of Giant Sea Lizard With Dagger-Like Teeth Show How Our Oceans Have Fundamentally Changed Since the Dinosaur Era
- Fossil Named 'Attenborough's Strange Bird' Was the First in Its Kind Without Teeth
Monday, March 4, 2024
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Friday, March 1, 2024
- Dung Beetles Show Their Love by Sharing the Load
- Study Identifies Multi-Organ Response to Seven Days Without Food
Thursday, February 29, 2024
- Scientists ID Burned Bodies Using Technique Used for Extracting DNA from Woolly Mammoths, Neanderthals
- Slimming Down a Colossal Fossil Whale
- Radio Waves Can Tune Up Bacteria to Become Life-Saving Medicines
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
- Creepy Crawlies Protect Apples When Flowers Are Planted on Farms
- Double Trouble at Chromosome Ends
- Change in Gene Code May Explain How Human Ancestors Lost Tails
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Monday, February 26, 2024
Friday, February 23, 2024
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
- High Resolution Techniques Reveal Clues in 3.5 Billion-Year-Old Biomass
- Butterfly and Moth Genomes Mostly Unchanged Despite 250 Million Years of Evolution
- An Awkward Family Reunion: Sea Monsters Are Our Cousins
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
- Bat 'nightclubs' May Be the Key to Solving the Next Pandemic
- Giant New Snake Species Identified in the Amazon
Monday, February 19, 2024
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Friday, February 16, 2024
Thursday, February 15, 2024
- Meow or Rooaaar: Exotic Cats' Ability to Recognize Familiar Caregivers' Voices
- Ancient Retroviruses Played a Key Role in the Evolution of Vertebrate Brains
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
- Some Pre-Roman Humans Were Buried With Dogs, Horses and Other Animals
- By Growing Animal Cells in Rice Grains, Scientists Dish Up Hybrid Food
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
- Great Apes Playfully Tease Each Other
- Desert Ants: The Magnetic Field Calibrates the Navigation System
- Five Dazzling New Species of Eyelash Vipers Discovered in Colombia and Ecuador
Monday, February 12, 2024
- Archaeologists Discover Oldest Known Bead in the Americas
- The Hidden Rule for Flight Feathers -- And How It Could Reveal Which Dinosaurs Could Fly
- How Ancient Sea Creatures Can Inform Soft Robotics
Friday, February 9, 2024
- Surprisingly Vibrant Color of 12-Million-Year-Old Snail Shells
- Surprising Behavior in One of the Least Studied Mammals in the World