Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Feeding sharks ‘junk food’ takes a toll on their health
Many blacktip reef sharks in French Polynesia are commonly fed by tourists. But the low-quality diet is changing the sharks’ behavior and physiology.
- Animals
Chatty bats are more likely to take risks
Bats may broadcast their personalities to others from a distance, new experiments suggest, which could play into social dynamics within a colony.
- Life
This drawing is the oldest known sketch of an insect brain
Found in a roughly 350-year-old manuscript by Dutch biologist Johannes Swammerdam, the scientific illustration shows the brain of a honeybee drone.
- Ecosystems
Like flyways for birds, we need to map swimways for fish
Mapping fish migration routes and identifying threats is crucial to protecting freshwater species and their habitats, ecologists argue.
- Animals
Cricket frogs belly flop their way across water
Cricket frogs were once thought to hop on the water’s surface. They actually leap in and out of the water in a form of locomotion called porpoising.
- Animals
Fever’s link with a key kind of immunity is surprisingly ancient
When sick, Nile tilapia seek warmer water. That behavioral fever triggers a specialized immune response, hinting the connection evolved long ago.
- Animals
Mole or marsupial? This subterranean critter with a backward pouch is both
Genetic analyses have solved the riddle of where a marsupial mole fits on the tree of life: It’s a cousin to bilbies, bandicoots and Tasmanian devils.
- Paleontology
A mysteriously large pterosaur finally has an identity
A Jurassic pterosaur fossil, known to paleontologists for over 160 years, isn’t a new species. It is an odd specimen of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri.
- Animals
In chimpanzees, peeing is contagious
The first study of copycat urination in an animal documents how one chimpanzee peeing prompts others to follow suit. Now researchers are exploring why.
- Life
Early human ancestors didn’t regularly eat meat
Chemicals in the tooth enamel of Australopithecus suggest the early human ancestors ate very little meat, dining on vegetation instead.
- Genetics
Iron Age Celtic women’s social and political power just got a boost
Ancient DNA indicates women stayed in their home communities and married partners from outside the area.
- Life
Toxin-gobbling bacteria may live on poison dart frog skin
Toxins on poison dart frog skin mold the skin's microbial community, boosting species variety and potentially even feeding some daredevil bacteria.
