240 results
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- Paleontology
Octopus origins
After examining more than 90 new specimens of Nectocaris pteryx, paleontologists put it near the root of the cephalopod evolutionary tree.
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Octopus by Jennifer A. Mather, Roland C. Anderson and James B. Wood
An in-depth look reveals the uncanny smarts and elegant adaptations of these eight-armed wonders. OCTOPUS Timber Press, 2010, 208 p., $25.95.
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- Earth
Primordial bestiary gets an annex
A classic Canadian fossil trove extends to thinner deposits, geologists find.
- Earth
Extinctions breed carbon chaos
Massive die-off left ecosystems vulnerable, an analysis suggests.
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Letters
Thinking animals An interesting article, but the question of human consciousness seems no closer to solution in “Humans wonder, anybody home?” by Susan Gaidos (SN: 12/19/09, p. 22) than it did in Julian Jaynes’ The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind of 1976. It seems to me that all the mental […]
- Life
One small step for a snail, one giant leap for snailkind
Experiments suggest that gastropods shed their shells in one fell swoop during the evolutionary transition that created slugs.
- Animals
Argonauts use shells as flotation devices
The octopus relatives create their own buoyancy devices by gulping and hoarding air from the surface.
- Health & Medicine
Getting to the bottom of diabetes and kidney disease
Renal cells called podocytes may need insulin to maintain tissues’ blood-filtration role, a study in mice finds.
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Humans wonder, anybody home?
Brain structure and circuitry offer clues to consciousness in nonmammals.
