Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Paleontology
Mammals started flying when birds did
The first gliding mammal winged through forests at least 70 million years earlier than scientists had previously presumed, a new fossil shows. The specimen dates from about 150 million years ago, during the time when birds were developing flight. ANCIENT GLIDER. Volaticotherium antiquus was gliding through ancient forests 150 million years ago. The creature weighed […]
- Animals
Extreme Tongue: Bat excels at saying ‘Aah’
The new champion among mammals at sticking out its tongue is a small bat from Ecuador.
- Ecosystems
Going Native: Diverse grassland plants edge out crops as biofuel
Biofuels made from mixtures of plants native to prairies can yield more net energy than do biofuels derived from corn and soybeans.
- Animals
Ebola Die-Off: Gorilla losses tallied in central Africa
Between 2001 and 2005, Ebola virus killed at least 5,500 lowland gorillas in the Republic of the Congo.
- Animals
New Butterfly: High-alpine species from low-life parents
Little bluish butterflies high in the Sierra Nevada could be one of the few animal species to have arisen from crossbreeding of two other species.
- Animals
Fighting Styles: Gene gives flies his, her conflict moves
Switching forms of one gene can make a male fruit fly fight like a girl, and vice versa.
- Animals
Tough policing deters cheating in insects
In insect societies that have tough police, it's coercion, rather than kinship, that's preventing crime.
- Animals
Chicken Speak: Birds pass test for fancy communication
The chicken may be the first animal other than primates that's been shown to make sounds that, like words, represent something in the environment. With audio.
- Animals
Hey, that’s me!
A test with a jumbo-size mirror suggests that Asian elephants may be among the few species that can recognize their own images.
- Paleontology
Asian amber yields oldest known bee
A tiny chunk of amber from Southeast Asia contains the remains of a bee that's at least 35 million years older than any reported fossil of similar bees.
- 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.
