Search Results for: Vertebrates
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1,539 results for: Vertebrates
- Animals
Bite This: Borrowed toad toxins save snake’s neck
An Asian snake gets toxins by salvaging them from the poisonous toads it eats.
By Susan Milius - Animals
New candidates for smallest vertebrate
Two recent scientific papers have described fish species that could, depending on the definition, be the world's smallest known vertebrate.
By Susan Milius - Paleontology
Twice upon a Time
New fossil finds suggest that the complex features of mammals originated earlier than previously thought and might even have evolved independently in different mammalian lineages.
By Amy Maxmen -
Consciousness in the Raw
Observations of children born without most of the brain's outer layer, or cortex, and evidence from animal studies suggest that a basic form of consciousness may arise from the brain stem alone.
By Bruce Bower - Humans
European chemical legislation adopted
A groundbreaking chemical law, passed by the European Parliament on Dec. 13, is set to fundamentally change the evaluation and production of chemicals used throughout the European Union. The Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) law, which will go into effect in June 2007, takes a different approach than current U.S. policy does. It […]
- Animals
No-Dad Dragons: Komodos reproduce without males
Two female Komodo dragons in zoos have startled their keepers by laying viable eggs without males, possibly as a last resort at a time when mates are in increasingly short supply.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
A Different Side of Estrogen
Understanding estrogen's function is complicated by the fact that it can bind to two distinct receptors; scientists studying the second receptor now think that drugs targeting it could help a wide variety of ailments.
- Paleontology
DNA analysis reveals extinct type of wolf
New genetic analyses of the remains of gray wolves found in Alaska indicate that a distinct subpopulation of that species disappeared at the end of the last ice age, possibly because of its dietary habits.
By Sid Perkins - Paleontology
Rodents tell a geologic tale
The sudden appearance of many new species of rodents in Chile about 18 million years ago may have marked the rise of the southern Andes.
By Sid Perkins -
Air’s oxygen content constrains insect growth
The size to which insects grow is limited by their need to route oxygen to tissues in their legs.
By Ben Harder - Paleontology
Early tetrapod likely ate on shore
The skull structure of Acanthostega, a semiaquatic creature that lived about 365 million years ago, suggests that the animal fed on shore or in the shallows, not in deep water.
By Sid Perkins - Paleontology
Society sans frills
The discovery of the fossils of several young dinosaurs in one small space suggests that the members of one dinosaur group evolved complex social behaviors millions of years earlier than previously suspected.
By Sid Perkins