Search Results for: Vertebrates
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1,544 results for: Vertebrates
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AnimalsSuper Bird: Cooing doves flex extra-fast muscles
Muscles that control a dove's cooing belong to the fastest class of muscles known.
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 -
HumansEvolution in Action
Debates on the conflict between evolution and intelligent design are taking place not only in the courts but also in state legislatures and even among members of local school boards, where topics include curricula, textbooks, and the definition of science itself.
By Sid Perkins -
PaleontologyFirst Steps
Using materials as diverse as lobster eggs, dead birds, and the headless carcass of a rhinoceros, scientists are conducting experiments that scrutinize the first steps of the fossilization process.
By Sid Perkins -
AnimalsBeat Goes On: Carp heart keeps pace when fish lacks oxygen
Without oxygen, a Scandinavian fish not only can survive but also maintains a normal heartbeat for days.
By Susan Milius -
EarthA Little Less Green?
Emerging data indicate that use of pyrethroid pesticides, even by home owners, poses significant environmental risks.
By Janet Raloff -
HumansFrom the May 25, 1935, issue
A yacht's air resistance-reducing mast, plants that absorb poison, and new fossils from Patagonia.
By Science News -
EarthChanges in the Air
Changes in the atmospheric concentration of oxygen through geologic time, some gradual and some drastic, have strongly shaped evolution among many types of creatures.
By Sid Perkins -
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 -
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 -
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 -
PlantsGreen Red-Alert: Plant fights invaders with animal-like trick
Mustard plants' immune systems can react to traces of bacteria with a burst of nitric oxide, much as an animal's immune system does.
By Susan Milius