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University of Cambridge investigators have determined in a new study that early tetrapods (four-legged animals) did not use all their limbs for moving around. While the front feet were used for pulling their bodies forward, the hind limbs were used to maintain balance.
Scientists now believe that these early ancesto... |
24 May 2012
10:55 GMT |
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Scientists have suspected for a long time that studying the genes of other species could be very useful for understanding our own. A new study conducted by European investigators establishes this as fact.
The joint team was based at the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Inst... |
18 May 2012
10:28 GMT |
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A group of investigators at the Stanford University says that it has recently discovered the longest land-sea ecological chain in the world. Often invisible, these chains connect habitats and species around the world, and many of them are currently threatened with extinction.
Perhaps the most obvious trait of these... |
18 May 2012
04:57 GMT |
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A team of investigators and volunteers from the Monash University and Museum Victoria announce the discovery of important fossils in southeastern Australia. The bone fragments indicate that at least seven different species of meat-eating, theropod dinosaurs lived in the area millions of years ago.
Theropods is the g... |
17 May 2012
03:57 GMT |
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Dogs are among a select few animals that can break the species barrier, and mirror behaviors they see in humans. Sadness or joy are easily transmitted from a person to Fido, and sometimes even vice versa.Yawning is an excellent example of this. Scientists say that this behavior may be a manifestation of empathy, both... |
10 May 2012
10:42 GMT |
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Investigators from the University of Iowa announce the discovery of a massive crocodile species that lived in what is now Kenya, East Africa, between 2 and 4 million years ago. The reptile may have grown to around 8.2 meters (27 feet) in length, exceeding the size of the largest known Nile crocodile.
The latter was ... |
7 May 2012
09:48 GMT |
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Climate change, pollution and other forms of environmental stress are known to affect ecosystems significantly, researchers say, but a new study unexpectedly revealed that biodiversity loss has an equally damaging effect as well.
Scientists with an international collaboration discovered that losing many of its nati... |
3 May 2012
08:11 GMT |
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The evolutionary theory of aging has just received additional proof, in the form of a fossil-based study that was published in the April 25 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
In short, the work suggests that species living in ecosystems that boast only limited amount of resources, and where mor... |
25 April 2012
10:49 GMT |
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A group of biologists in the United States announces the discovery of a new protein in fruit flies. The molecule plays an important role in allowing the diminutive insect's wings to develop properly. An analog may exist in humans as well, and identifying it could lead to developing treatments for a host of medic... |
3 April 2012
04:29 GMT |
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For a long time, anthropologists believed that Australopithecus afarensis, an ancient hominin that lived in the Afar region of Ethiopia some 3.4 million years ago, was the only ancestor species at the time. Now, new evidence appears to indicate that it had some company.
Scientists recently discovered the Burtele foo... |
29 March 2012
03:42 GMT |
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As climate change is beginning to stack up its pressure on fisheries worldwide, conservation experts are turning to all possible sources of inspiration, in hopes of figuring out how to handle this delicate situation. Apparently, ancient history has a lot to teach us in that regard.
In a paper published in the March... |
24 March 2012
05:25 GMT |
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A new species of enormous wasps was discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Interestingly, as this was happening, scientists were also rediscovering it in a collection stored at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany.
The specimen on record was trapped in the 1930s, and had been stored with the m... |
23 March 2012
11:53 GMT |
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The origins of the human brain may go way farther back in time than we first believed. According to the conclusions of a new study, the brains of humans and sea-dwelling worms share a genetic link. Needless to say the two species separated from their last common ancestor millions of years ago, but traces that both c... |
16 March 2012
07:01 GMT |
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A collaboration of scientists from a number of American universities announce the discovery of a new species of leopard frogs in marshes and ponds near New York City, within sight of the State of Liberty.
Scientists with the research team say that they mistook this frog for a more common type of leopard frog for ma... |
15 March 2012
04:30 GMT |
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The latest fad with the Chinese nouveau riche is exotic hunting trips to Canada, to kill and bring back home trophies of endangered polar bears. Such an expedition costs a small fortune but the takers are many, it has emerged. The Daily Mail reports that the price for a 10-day hunting trip, which includes a taxidermi... |
7 March 2012
03:53 GMT |
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Scientists at the University of Cambridge say that many of the large animals that went extinct over the past 100,000 years or so were primarily killed off by a combination of climate change and human activity. Very few such creatures remain today.
Elephants and rhinoceroses are good example of large animals that ma... |
6 March 2012
04:44 GMT |
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An international collaboration of scientists announces the development of a robotic fish that could easily infiltrate fish schools in their natural environments. This instrument could help reveal some of the things scientists still don't know about the social behavior of marine animals.
As evidenced in the vid... |
23 February 2012
09:45 GMT |
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As pollution levels continue to increase around the world, the amount of carbon dioxide making its way in the oceans is rising as well. Such high amounts of the chemical severely affect marine ecosystems, which are placed under increasingly intense strains.
Oceanic acidification is just one of these symptoms. In br... |
21 February 2012
07:16 GMT |
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In a paper published in the latest issue of the esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers present the love song that an extinct cricket used to call on his prospective mates more than 165 million years ago.
The species lived during the Jurassic Period, and was a “con... |
7 February 2012
04:51 GMT |
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According to scientists, more than 50 percent of all newly-found species are insects, which makes this class of living organisms the most unexplored on the planet. This is also highlighted in the latest issue of the International Institute for Species Exploration's (IISE) annual ‘State of Observed Species&... |
19 January 2012
18:01 GMT |
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Preamble
Before we go any further, there are some things you need to know. I am a philosopher at heart, and enjoy wondering about abstract concepts and ideas to the point where they become real scenarios in my head. The idea for writing this came shortly after I've finished readings Orson Scott Card's Chil... |
19 January 2012
17:01 GMT |
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Global warming effects have been linked to a wide series of disturbing facts, like environmental degradation and unwanted changes applied to wildlife species.
It may not come as a surprise that climate change triggers weird, destructive natural phenomena, while making most of the animals shrink.
However, to compl... |
12 January 2012
07:54 GMT |
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Evolutionary “detectives” at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) recently took it upon themselves to identify the reasons why primates exhibit such a wide array of facial features. In order to do that, they analyzed the faces of 129 male primates of different species.
The test “part... |
12 January 2012
05:38 GMT |
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The board of directors at the University of Chicago's Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) has been maintaining the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic clock face meant to express how well humanity is doing, since 1947. Yesterday, it was moved to show just five minutes until midnight.
The previous mark was set in Ja... |
11 January 2012
10:56 GMT |
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While analyzing the areas around a series of hydrothermal vents, researchers discovered a large number of new communities of species that they never even knew existed. The vents surveyed for this research were located at the bottom of the sea, near Antarctica.
The environments that form around these hydrothermal ven... |
4 January 2012
09:23 GMT |
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A number of marine surveys conducted earlier this year revealed a total of 15 new species living in the ocean. Some of these creatures are remarkable in and of themselves, whereas others are elusive species, or ones thought to have disappeared long ago.
The surveys were conducted in waters around Scotland, and cove... |
29 December 2011
04:51 GMT |
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Within roughly 15 years, frankincense production will decrease to half its current levels. Beyond that, it will only continue to decline, though the exact pace at which this will happen is still unknown. The trees that produce the resin are severely endangered, and currently in sharp decline.
Environmentalists warn... |
21 December 2011
05:42 GMT |
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Biologists have discovered two new species of the world's tiniest frogs, measuring less than 9 mm (0.31 inches), only a little more than a regular pill, in New Guinea.
It seems that the newly-found creatures are the smallest of their kind, 2 mm smaller than those previously found by researchers.
The scientis... |
16 December 2011
10:19 GMT |
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A common species of African ant was recently discovered to prefer fighting long-range, rather than melee. The insects are able to deploy a venomous vapor from their stingers, which is deadly even from a great distance.
In a study conducted in Cameroon, investigators witnessed a battle between 15 ants of the Crematog... |
15 December 2011
05:38 GMT |
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Biologists have a new reason to believe that biodiversity is far from being a closed chapter. They have discovered 208 new species in various ecosystems in the forests, waters and wetlands of the Greater Mekong region. Experts managed to identify 145 plants, 28 reptiles, 25 fish, 7 amphibians, 2 mammals and 1 bird... |
13 December 2011
02:40 GMT |
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A study partially funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and published in the December 2 issue of the top journal Science, shows that predictions of how wolves in Yellowstone National Park will react to climate change can be considerably improved.
In order to do that, the research team carried out an i... |
2 December 2011
14:01 GMT |
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Scientists with the University of British Columbia (UBC), in Canada, say that marine biodiversity loss will occur at a much faster rate than originally calculated. The main factors that contribute to this phenomenon are global warming – and the climate change it produces – and increased predation.
The l... |
29 November 2011
03:59 GMT |
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Scientists carrying out digs inside an Australian cave were able to discover a series of bones belonging to tuna and sharks, which were taken into this shelter by human hands. The finding indicates that the practice of fishing is at least 42,000 years old.
Archaeologists are convinced that the bones did not get to ... |
25 November 2011
10:10 GMT |
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A group of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) says that the chemical composition of the early ocean was extremely important for the development of marine life later on.
The scientists explain that the vast amount of biodiversity currently present in the water was a direct result of favorable... |
25 November 2011
03:04 GMT |
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Researchers established that animal and plant populations in areas of the world most likely to be affected by climate change in the very near future will have to adapt to their new environment at the same speed. If this is not an option, then they will have to abandon their territories just as fast.
This holds true... |
4 November 2011
05:43 GMT |
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Researchers at the University of Copenhagen Center of GeoGenetics say that a new analysis of six large herbivore species revealed an interesting aspect of Earth's environment at the end of the last Ice Age – nature and man conspired to cause the demise of large herbivore animals.
This was established aft... |
3 November 2011
04:46 GMT |
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A collaboration of American researchers recently managed to gain new insight into how land-based life evolved after the Permian–Triassic extinction event, which occurred about 251.4 million years ago. The team found that life did not immediately bounce back.
This event is widely known as the Great Dying, named... |
26 October 2011
03:50 GMT |
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Following a painstaking study, investigators were recently able to identify the exact area of the human genome that determines the location and time when genes are turned on and off. The international group of scientists that conducted the research analyzed multiple animals species for this work.
Scientists at th... |
14 October 2011
04:42 GMT |
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In a scientific paper published in the October 11 issue of the esteemed journal Biology Letters, researchers at the University of Zürich, in Switzerland, say that all meerkats have their own, unique voice. This helps members of the pack communicate with each other easily. There are very few instances in nature o... |
13 October 2011
11:02 GMT |
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A detailed study has recently shown that past global warming events were tremendously harsh to slow-moving critters, as in species ranging from frogs to bats. All species that were unable to move from one climate zone to another fast enough were decimate.
From this point of view, each global warming event in Earth... |
7 October 2011
10:05 GMT |
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Biologists at the Brown University recently conducted a simulation of how various species must evolve in order to adapt to the effects of global warming. Their results indicate that the ability to withstand more heat will be a critical factor separating those who survive from those who die.
However, the competiti... |
29 September 2011
16:31 GMT |
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Investigators at the University of Sao Paolo, in Brazil, led by expert André Martins, say that a new computer simulation they conducted on the process of human aging revealed that the phenomenon has striking resemblances to an evolutionary adaptation.
The reason behind this is very simple, even though a lit... |
27 September 2011
03:07 GMT |
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New evidence appears to support theories suggesting that the human brain – with is ability to create new things, invent and reinvent itself – appeared no later than 75,000 years ago, in a sudden event. A new study is bound to reignite the scientific debate already raging on on this issue.
At first, th... |
26 September 2011
05:06 GMT |
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According to the conclusions of a new scientific study, it would appear that chimpanzees prefer to collaborate and cooperate with each other only when they have to. If it doesn't serve their own interests, the primates will turn away from a task requiring a group to work together.
This is significantly diffe... |
23 September 2011
09:11 GMT |
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According to officials at the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the organization will award a total of $21 million to grants seeking to explain and better understand how we, as a species, interact with out environment. The accepted study proposals are extremely varied, and cover numerous topics.
Lately, the c... |
21 September 2011
10:11 GMT |
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A group of American investigators announces the discovery of the first batch of solid evidences indicating that the process of methylation – and the adjacent gene sequences – have co-evolved in humans and chimpanzees. The species separated from a common ancestor some 6 million years ago.
This is the fi... |
19 September 2011
03:00 GMT |
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Scientists from the University of California in Berkeley (UCB) discovered in a recent study that species which are dependent on each other for their very survival can become separated and then reunite over vast distances. At times, these can cover several thousand miles.
For the new study, the research team focuse... |
8 September 2011
16:01 GMT |
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A new study conducted by investigators at the University of Arizona, in the United States, demonstrates that modern and “archaic” humans interbred in Africa between 60,000 and 20,000 years ago. The behavior led to the transfer of small amounts of “old” genetic material into modern-day humans. ... |
7 September 2011
05:17 GMT |
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Some 251.4 million years ago, the world went through an event informally known as the Great Dying. The massive catastrophe wiped out most of the world's animals and plant species, and now experts are beginning to discover that ocean acidification also played an important role.
The Permian–Triassic (P&nd... |
6 September 2011
04:31 GMT |
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Nearly 40 years ago, a group of visionaries began storing skin cells from various endangered species in deep-freeze. Now, their efforts are praised by scientists who develop methods of producing stem cells from the stored samples. These cells can be used to revive endangered or extinct species. When the conservation ... |
5 September 2011
16:21 GMT |
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