Search Results for: Vertebrates
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1,541 results
1,541 results for: Vertebrates
- Animals
This lizard can tolerate extreme levels of lead
Cuban brown anoles have the highest blood lead levels of any vertebrate known — three times that of the previous record holder, the Nile crocodile.
- Animals
Spider silk-making organs evolved due to a 400-million-year-old genetic oops
An ancient ancestor of spiders and relatives doubled its genome about 400 million years ago, setting the stage for the evolution of spinnerets.
- Animals
Huge relatives of white sharks lived earlier than thought
Lamniform sharks such as great whites and tiger sharks are famous for their size. The first such giants evolved 15 million years earlier than thought.
- Paleontology
These crocodile-like beasts reached the Caribbean, outlasting mainland kin
Knife-toothed reptiles called sebecids went extinct on the mainland 10 million years ago. New fossil evidence puts them on an island 4 million years ago.
- Animals
This ‘ghost shark’ has teeth on its forehead
Spotted ratfish, or “ghost sharks,” have forehead teeth that help them grasp onto mates. It’s the first time teeth have been found outside of a mouth.
- Animals
What the longest woolly rhino horn tells us about the beasts’ biology
A nearly 20,000-year-old woolly rhino horn reveals the extinct herbivores lived as long as modern-day rhinos, despite harsher Ice Age conditions.
- Animals
Fewer scavengers could mean more zoonotic disease
Scavenger populations are decreasing, a new study shows. That could put human health at risk.
- Animals
How Greenland sharks defy aging
When it comes to bucking the biological ails of aging, humans could learn something from Greenland sharks.
- Animals
The mystery of how iguanas crossed the Pacific Ocean may be solved
The iguanas' 8,000-kilometer trip — one-fifth of the Earth’s circumference — is the longest made by a flightless land vertebrate.
- Paleontology
Sloths once came in a dizzying array of sizes. Here’s why
A new fossil and DNA analysis traces how dozens of sloth species responded to climate shifts and humans. Just two small tree-dwelling sloths remain today.
- Paleontology
An ancient reptile’s fossilized skin reveals how it swam like a seal
A reptile fossil is the first of its kind with skin and partially webbed feet, possibly showing how later species like plesiosaurs adapted to water.
- Paleontology
This exquisite Archaeopteryx fossil reveals how flight took off in birds
Analyses unveiled never-before-seen feathers and bones from the first known bird, strengthening the case that Archaeopteryx could fly.
