Maotherium asiaticus is the name Chinese and American researchers gave to a newly discovered fossil species, which lived in the Liaoning Province of China some 123 million years ago. The chipmunk-sized creature was found in the Yixian Formation, a very rich fossil bed that had yielded countless amazing discoveries ov... |
9 October 2009
10:01 GMT |
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According to a new study conducted by experts at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), mammals can now be declared the winners of the evolutionary race, outclassing reptiles in the fight for survival. Fish and birds also moved ahead of reptiles, each exhibiting large species diversity, which means that ... |
1 August 2009
02:06 GMT |
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According to a new report released on Thursday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, some 869 species of plants and animals have gone extinct in the past 500 years, with an additional 17,000 more now at risk of disappearing as well. Additionally, the paper underlines the fact that the world's go... |
2 July 2009
06:40 GMT |
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The Blue Brain Project is an initiative that was started by IBM and EPFL in July 2005, with the purpose of reverse-engineering a small portion of the mammalian brain, including that of humans. The ultimate goal of the research is to understand the functions and dysfunctions of the organ, by analyzing and simulating i... |
23 April 2009
06:31 GMT |
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Experts know that the females of most species of mammals, including humans, stop producing eggs, known as oocytes, soon before birth, and that the number of eggs they are born with is the number they will have for the rest of their lives. Challenging this knowledge, researchers in China have recently announced that t... |
13 April 2009
03:43 GMT |
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Thus far, scientists and naturalists have known that female birds are the most picky living things when it comes to their mates, but have never suspected that the same behavior could be found in mammals as well. But recent investigations into the matter seem to yield very interesting conclusions, in that it actually ... |
18 March 2009
10:35 GMT |
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Studying the secrets of wildlife has been one of the most dangerous tasks for scientists, and has gotten increasingly dangerous with the appearance of television channels dedicated to animals and nature. In addition to show hosts who just want their ratings to go up, real scientists, conducting thorough experiments o... |
10 March 2009
10:54 GMT |
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It's common knowledge that mammals, unlike for example reptiles, have warm blood and generate heat inside their bodies at all times. For many years, researchers in the field of evolution have been trying to decipher the mystery of this difference, and especially how warm-blooded creatures came to be in the first... |
5 February 2009
13:01 GMT |
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With the help of data regarding the fossils of as much as 4,000 known species of mammals that lived on Earth up to 60 million years ago, Aaron Clauset of the Santa Fe Institute and Douglas Erwin of the National Museum of Natural History created one of the most accurate computer models that estimates how the body size... |
18 July 2008
10:43 GMT |
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The fossilized burrow found recently in Antarctica and dated to the Early Triassic epoch is thought to have belonged to tetrapods - land vertebrates with four legs or appendages resembling legs - and was created when a nearby river overflowed, filling it with fine sand that hardened later on. No remains of the animal... |
9 June 2008
02:49 GMT |
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Scientists have recently found the oldest known fossil that indicates that reproduction through birth was encountered in vertebrate animals as early as 380 million years ago. The fossil belongs to an armored fish female that was about to give birth, but it perished and got fossilized along with the embryo inside it. ... |
29 May 2008
07:23 GMT |
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Morning sickness could be rather annoying for most pregnant women, but it may in fact have the role of protecting the embryo. According to doctors, morning sickness is the sign of a healthy pregnancy, although it's not yet known if it leads to a successful one or not. Alternatively, it could be the effect of the... |
19 May 2008
03:43 GMT |
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