Life

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Paleontology

    Just a quick bite

    Saber-toothed cats living in North America around 10,000 years ago had a much weaker bite than modern big cats.

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  2. Animals

    Tough-guy bluebirds need a frontier

    As western bluebirds recolonize Montana, the most aggressive males move in first, paving the way for milder-mannered dads to take over.

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  3. Plants

    Stalking the Green Meat Eaters

    Pitcher plants in a New England bog hold little ecosystems in their leaves, and also act as indicators of the bog's ecological health.

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  4. Animals

    Not Your Ordinary Amphibians

    They resemble mondo worms or perhaps eels and snakes. But caecilians (seh sil yenz) are actually legless amphibians, and along with deep sea fishes are among the least well known vertebrates on the planet. Some run to a meter or more in length. Although information on these elusive animals and photos of them are hard […]

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  5. Paleontology

    Unexpected Archive: Mammoth hair yields ancient DNA

    Hair from ancient mammoths contains enough genetic material to permit reconstruction of parts of the animal's genome.

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  6. Plants

    Water-saving grain

    Rice with an added gene needs less water and can survive drought.

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  7. Animals

    Honeybee mobs smother big hornets

    Honeybees gang up on an attacking hornet, killing it by blocking its breathing.

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  8. Paleontology

    Bumpy Bones: Fossil hints that dinosaur had feathery forearms

    A series of knobs on the forearm bone of a 1.5-meter-long velociraptor provides the first direct evidence of substantial feathers on a dinosaur of that size.

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  9. Animals

    Hybrid Power: Salamander invader ups survival of rare cousin

    Mixed offspring of the endangered California tiger salamander and an invasive cousin survive better than either pure-bred species, raising tricky questions for conservationists.

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  10. Animals

    Fish Switch: Salmon make baby trout after species, sex swap

    Salmon implanted with trout reproductive tissue bred to produce a generation of normal rainbow trout.

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  11. Animals

    Hive Scourge? Virus linked to recent honeybee die-off

    A poorly understood virus seems to have a connection to the recent widespread demise of honeybees.

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  12. Animals

    Cicada Serenades

    One sound that characterizes American summers is the cicada chorus. The insects’ long, drawn out serenades can be loud and ethereal, reminiscent of some cross between the sounds of rustling and scraping. Half a world away, Borneo’s cicadas belt out very different melodies. Although some sound fairly familiar, one available at this German site is […]

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