Search Results for: Vertebrates
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1,535 results for: Vertebrates
- Ecosystems
How mammoths competed with other animals and lost
Mammoths, mastodons and other ancient elephants were wiped out at the end of the last ice age by climate change and spear-wielding humans.
- Animals
Most blue whales are ‘righties,’ except for this one move
Though many blue whales tend to be “right-handed” when hunting for krill, one specific barrel roll move requires a lefty twist.
- Paleontology
New fossils shake up history of amphibians with no legs
The oldest near-relative of today’s snake-shaped caecilians could have an unexpected backstory.
By Susan Milius - Oceans
Here’s a breakdown of the animals that crossed the Pacific on 2011 tsunami debris
Hundreds of marine animals from Japan have washed up on U.S. beaches since the destructive 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
- Paleontology
Woolly rhinos may have grown strange extra ribs before going extinct
Ribs attached to neck bones could have signaled trouble for woolly rhinos, a new study suggests.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Being a vampire can be brutal. Here’s how bloodsuckers get by.
Blood-sucking animals have specialized physiology and other tools to live on a diet rich in protein and lacking in some nutrients.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Study ranks Greenland shark as longest-lived vertebrate
Radiocarbon in eye lenses suggests mysterious Greenland sharks might live for almost 400 years.
By Susan Milius - Paleontology
New tyrannosaur had a sensitive side
Tyrannosaurs may have had sensitive snouts that detected temperature and touch.
- Paleontology
Shhhh! Some plant-eating dinos snacked on crunchy critters
Scientists studying dinosaur poop found that some duck-billed dinos cheated on their vegetarian diets by snacking on crustaceans.
- Animals
Size matters to lizards, but numbers may not
Scientists have sized up the quantitative abilities of lizards and found that reptiles may not be as good with numbers as other vertebrates.
- Paleontology
Ancient armored fish revises early history of jaws
The fossil of a 423-million-year-old armored fish from China suggests that the jaws of all modern land vertebrates and bony fish originated in a bizarre group of animals called placoderms.
By Meghan Rosen - Life
Defining ‘species’ is a fuzzy art
Here's why scientists still don't agree on what a species is.
By Susan Milius