Life

  1. Paleontology

    Remains may be an evolutionary relic

    Fossils recently found in southwestern China may be of a lineage that originated long before the Cambrian explosion of biodiversity, when most major groups of animals first appeared in the fossil record.

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  2. Animals

    Monkey Business: Specimen of new species shakes up family tree

    The new monkey species found in Tanzania last year may be unusual enough to need a new genus, the first one created for monkeys in nearly 80 years.

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  3. Plants

    Nectar: The First Soft Drink

    Plants have long competed with one another to lure animals in for a sip of their sweet formulations.

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  4. Animals

    No Early Birds: Migrators can’t catch advancing caterpillars

    Pied flycatcher numbers are dwindling in places where climate change has knocked the birds' migration out of sync with the food-supply peak on their breeding grounds.

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  5. Animals

    Just turn your back, Mom

    A female in a species of legless amphibians called caecilians nourishes her youngsters by letting them eat the skin off her back.

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  6. Animals

    Bird hormone cuts noise distractions

    A jolt of springtime hormones makes a female sparrow's brain more responsive to song.

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  7. Animals

    Grammar’s for the Birds: Human-only language rule? Tell starlings

    A grammatical pattern called recursion, once proposed as unique to human language, turns out to fall within the learning abilities of starlings.

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  8. Paleontology

    Dinosaur neck size reaches new extreme

    Scientists have unearthed remains of a massive, plant-eating dinosaur whose neck may have been twice as long as its body.

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  9. Animals

    Worm can crawl out of predators

    A parasitic worm can wriggle out through a predator's gills or mouth if the predator eats the worm's insect host. With video.

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  10. Ecosystems

    Antarctic birds are breeding later

    Rising global temperatures are causing Arctic birds to breed earlier in the spring, but for Antarctic birds, the reverse is true.

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  11. Animals

    Into Hot Water: Lab test shows that worms seek heat

    Worms from deep-sea vents prefer water at temperatures near the upper limit of what animals are known to survive.

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  12. Animals

    Foodfree growth

    Rattlesnakes undergo a hibernation-like state to survive long periods of famine, while continuing to grow longer.

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