Search Results for: Vertebrates
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1,552 results for: Vertebrates
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PaleontologyEarly Bird: Fossil features hint at go-get-’em hatchlings
A well-preserved, 121-million-year-old fossilized bird embryo has several features that suggest that the species' young could move about and feed themselves very soon after they hatched.
By Sid Perkins -
PaleontologyDino Dwarf: Island living may have led to ancient downsizing
Fossils unearthed at a German quarry hint that members of one species of dinosaur that lived in the region about 152 million years ago evolved to be abnormally small because of the constraints of its island ecosystem.
By Sid Perkins -
PaleontologyThe big fish that went away . . .
Fossils found near Charleston, S.C., suggest that an extinct species of billfish related to today's swordfish and marlin would easily exceed the lengths documented for world-record specimens of those oft-sought sports fish.
By Sid Perkins -
Paleontology. . . and the big bird that didn’t
The California condor, one of today's largest and rarest birds, may have survived the last ice age because of its varied diet.
By Sid Perkins -
PaleontologyPlenty of dinosaurs yet to be found
Despite a dramatic surge in dinosaur discoveries in recent years, paleontologists won't soon run out of interesting new fossils to unearth, a new analysis suggests.
By Sid Perkins -
AnimalsColor at Night: Geckos can distinguish hues by dim moonlight
The first vertebrate to ace tests of color vision at low light levels—tests that people flunk—is an African gecko.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsCrow Tools: Hatched to putter
The New Caledonian crow is the first vertebrate to be shown definitively to have an innate tendency to make and use tools, according to researchers who doubled as bird nannies.
By Susan Milius -
PaleontologyGroovy Bones: Mammalian ear structure evolved more than once
Fossils of an ancient egg-laying mammal indicate that the characteristic configuration of the bones in all living mammals' ears arose independently at least twice during the group's evolution.
By Sid Perkins -
PaleontologyOld Softy: Tyrannosaurus fossil yields flexible tissue
Scientists analyzing fragments of a Tyrannosaurus rex's leg bone have recovered soft, pliable material, including structures that apparently are cells and blood vessels.
By Sid Perkins -
AnimalsJungle Genes: First bird genome is decoded
Researchers have unveiled a draft of the first bird genome to be sequenced, a vintage chicken.
By Susan Milius -
Fish guts reveal microbial alliance
Scientists are studying germfree zebra fish to better understand how microbes influence gut development.
By John Travis -
PaleontologyNeck Bones on the Menu: Fossil vertebrae show species interaction
Three fossil neck bones from an ancient flying reptile—one of them with the broken tip of a tooth embedded in it—indicate that the winged creatures occasionally fell victim to meat eaters.
By Sid Perkins