Odd Creatures: Plants & Animals
December 24, 2024
Top Headlines
Dec. 19, 2024 — A new study finds nearly 50 hidden relatives of Pterodactylus, the first pterosaur. Joined by its newly discovered relatives, Pterodactylus's 'family' now encompasses tiny flaplings, a host of teenagers, some mums and dads and even a few large old ...
Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientists have successfully identified a previously unknown species to Southern California from fossilized seeds, revealing a drought-fueled dance between two species of juniper with lessons for the ...
Dec. 19, 2024 — Fossilized skeletons and shells clearly show how evolution and extinction unfolded over the past half a billion years, but a new analysis extends the chart of life to nearly 2 billion years ago. The chart shows the relative ups and downs in species ...
Dec. 16, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered unexpected diversity in the genetic processes that determine the sex of the African clawed frog, a significant discovery in what was already one of the most widely studied ...
Latest Headlines
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Dec. 18, 2024 — While volcanism caused a temporary cold period, the effects had already worn off thousands of years before the meteorite, the ultimate cause of the dinosaur extinction event, ...
Dec. 18, 2024 — California ground squirrels hunt, kill and eat voles, reveals a new study documenting evidence of widespread carnivorous behavior among ...
Dec. 12, 2024 — Scientists have today announced the discovery of a species of lipstick vine completely new to science, from the depths of the Philippine rainforest. ...
Dec. 11, 2024 — DNA stores the instructions for life and, along with enzymes and other molecules, computes everything from hair color to risk of developing diseases. Harnessing that prowess and immense storage ...
Dec. 12, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered in anglerfish a specialized motor neuron population for the first dorsal fin used for 'fishing'. When the first dorsal fin ...
Dec. 12, 2024 — Researchers are linking human activity to increased gene transfer from soil bacteria to ...
Dec. 12, 2024 — Using data from 23 studies of what psychologists call 'inequity aversion,' researchers combed through results of more than 60,000 observations involving 18 animal species. In what they said was the ...
Dec. 5, 2024 — A new study by researchers investigating a unique free-ranging feral population of water buffalo on Lantau Island in Hong Kong has discovered that ...
Dec. 9, 2024 — Thanks for a powerful antioxidant, Deinococcus radiodurans can withstand radiation doses 28,000 times greater than what would kill a human. In a new study, scientists discovered how the antioxidant ...
Dec. 11, 2024 — A groundbreaking study has shed light on how lizards and snakes -- the most diverse group of land vertebrates with nearly 12,000 species -- have evolved remarkably varied jaw shapes, driving their ...
Earlier Headlines
Dec. 11, 2024 — Recycling all the human and livestock feces and urine on the planet would contribute substantially to meeting the nutrient supply for all crops worldwide, thereby reducing the need to mine ...
Dec. 11, 2024 — Scientists' findings in mice could translate into a radical, needle-free vaccination approach that would also eliminate reactions including fever, swelling and ...
Dec. 11, 2024 — How can we explain the morphological diversity of living organisms? Although genetics is the answer that typically springs to mind, it is not the only explanation. By combining observations of ...
Dec. 10, 2024 — Some of the world's smallest animals and their tiny poops could aid in the fight against climate change. A study reports that clay dust sprayed on the surface of seawater converts free-floating ...
Dec. 9, 2024 — A new study shows that dogs trained to use soundboards to 'talk' are capable of making two-word button combinations that go beyond random behavior or simple imitation of their ...
Dec. 9, 2024 — Characterized by darkness and intense pressure, the ocean's hadal zone seems uninhabitable, yet dozens of unique organisms call it home. Each species discovered there adds a crucial piece to the ...
Dec. 6, 2024 — Researchers have built a drone that can walk, hop, and jump into flight with the aid of birdlike legs, greatly expanding the range of potential environments accessible to unmanned aerial ...
Dec. 6, 2024 — Desert ants of the Cataglyphis nodus species use the Earth's magnetic field for spatial orientation, but rely on a different component of the field than other insects. The survey suggests that ...
Dec. 5, 2024 — Hummingbird bills -- their long, thin beaks -- look a little like drinking straws. But new research shows just how little water, or nectar, that comparison holds. Scientists have discovered that the ...
Dec. 5, 2024 — A new study suggests that the fundamental abilities underlying human language and technological culture may have evolved before humans and apes diverged millions of years ...
Dec. 4, 2024 — Male African elephants have distinct personality traits, but also adapt their behavior to suit the social context, according to a new ...
Dec. 3, 2024 — Previous research found that insects can ingest and absorb pure, unrefined microplastics -- but only under unrealistic, food-scarce situations. Zoologists have now tested mealworms in a more ...
Dec. 3, 2024 — The hydrogen atoms of [4Fe-4S] type ferredoxin, one of the electron carriers, have been visualized and both experiments and calculations have revealed the mechanisms that control the redox potential. ...
Dec. 3, 2024 — Researchers at TU Delft have discovered that E. coli bacteria can synchronize their movements, creating order in seemingly random biological systems. By trapping individual bacteria in ...
Dec. 3, 2024 — Researchers have identified a subset of brain cells in mice that act as the master regulators of ...
Dec. 3, 2024 — An analysis of fungi collected from peat bogs has identified several species that produce substances toxic to the bacterium that causes the human disease tuberculosis. The findings suggest that one ...
Dec. 2, 2024 — Newly discovered insect fossils are so small they can barely be seen by the human eye but have been preserved in an 'extraordinary' ...
Dec. 2, 2024 — A groundbreaking study sheds light on the extraordinary evolution of anglerfish, a group of deep-sea dwellers whose bizarre adaptations have captivated scientists and the public alike. The research ...
Dec. 2, 2024 — Scientists find making a seaweed additive more accessible to grazing cattle reduces methane emissions 40% and could make cattle farming more ...
Nov. 29, 2024 — Researchers have been able to identify undigested food remains, plants and prey in the fossilized feces of dinosaurs. These analyses of hundreds of samples provide clues about the role dinosaurs ...
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
- Recycling Human, Animal Excreta Reduces Need for Fertilizers
- Scientists Transform Ubiquitous Skin Bacterium Into a Topical Vaccine
- Biological Diversity Is Not Just the Result of Genes
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Monday, December 9, 2024
Friday, December 6, 2024
- Bird-Inspired Drone Can Jump for Take-Off
- Desert Ants Use the Polarity of the Geomagnetic Field for Navigation
Thursday, December 5, 2024
- That's No Straw: Hummingbirds Evolved Surprisingly Flexible Bills to Help Them Drink Nectar
- Chimpanzees Perform the Same Complex Behaviors That Have Brought Humans Success
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
- Can Plastic-Eating Bugs Help With Our Microplastic Problem?
- Uncovered a Mystery of 'electron Carrier' Existing in All Living Organisms: Discovery of a 'nano-Switch Mechanism' Controlled by a Single Hydrogen Atom
- Tiny Dancers: Scientists Synchronize Bacterial Motion
- Scientists Identify Brain Cell Type as Master Controller of Urination
- Peat-Bog Fungi Produce Substances That Kill Tuberculosis-Causing Bacteria
Monday, December 2, 2024
- Insect Fossil Find 'extremely Rare'
- Deep-Sea Marvels: How Anglerfish Defy Evolutionary Expectations
- Feeding Grazing Cattle Seaweed Cuts Methane Emissions by Almost 40%
Friday, November 29, 2024
- Fossil Dung Reveals Clues to Dinosaur Success Story
- Inside the 'swat Team' -- How Insects React to Virtual Reality Gaming
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
- Early North Americans Made Needles from Fur-Bearers
- 'Genetic Time Machine' Reveals Complex Chimpanzee Cultures
Monday, November 25, 2024
- New Study Reveals the Explosive Secret of the Squirting Cucumber
- To Design Better Water Filters, Engineers Look to Manta Rays
- Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers Heard the Elks Painted on Rocks 'talking'
- Focaccia: A Neolithic Culinary Tradition Dating Back 9,000 Years Ago
- Bats' Amazing Plan B for When They Can't Hear
- The Next Evolution of AI Begins With Ours
- Cyanobacterial Circadian Clock Uses an AM Radio-Like Mechanism to Control Cellular Processes
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
- Friendly Social Behaviors Are Contagious for Chimpanzees
- Sweet Tooth Ethiopian Wolves Seen Feeding on Nectar
- Thanksgiving Special: Dinosaur Drumsticks and the Story of the Turkey Trot
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Monday, November 18, 2024
- Scientists Recreate Mouse from Gene Older Than Animal Life
- New Fossil Reveals the Evolution of Flying Reptiles
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Friday, November 15, 2024
- Generation of Rat Offspring from Ovarian Oocytes by Cross-Species Transplantation
- Biologists Reveal the Genetic 'switch' Behind Parrot Color Diversity
Thursday, November 14, 2024
- 'Cool' White Car Headlights More Likely to Dazzle Moths
- Living Microbes Discovered in Earth's Driest Desert
- How Conflicting Memories of Sex and Starvation Compete to Drive Behavior, Study in Worms Shows
- NeuroMechFly V2: Simulating How Fruit Flies See, Smell, and Navigate
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
- On the Origin of Life: How the First Cell Membranes Came to Exist
- Anti-Fatberg Invention Could Help Unclog City Sewers
- Robot Identifies Plants by 'touching' Their Leaves
- Bird Brain from the Age of Dinosaurs Reveals Roots of Avian Intelligence
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
- Young Coral Use Metabolic Tricks to Resist Bleaching
- Synthetic Cells Emulate Natural Cellular Communication
- First Amber Find on the Antarctic Continent
- Remarkable New Swimming Sea Slug in the Deep Sea
Monday, November 11, 2024
- A New Wrinkle in Turtles: Their Genomes Fold in a Unique Way, Researchers Find
- A Milestone in the Study of Octopus Arms
- The Shellowship of the Ring: Two New Snail Species Named After Tolkien Characters
- Secret Behind the Corpse Flower's Famous Stench
Friday, November 8, 2024
- Study of Mountaineering Mice Sheds Light on Evolutionary Adaptation
- Scarlet Macaw Parents 'play Favorites,' Purposefully Neglect Younger Chicks
- Elephant Turns a Hose Into a Sophisticated Showering Tool
- Chimpanzees Perform Better on Challenging Computer Tasks When They Have an Audience
- Deep-Sea Corals Are Home to Previously Unknown Bacteria With Extremely Small Genomes
Thursday, November 7, 2024
- Insect-Killing Fungi Find Unexpected Harmony in War
- Scientists Trained AI to Detect Faces in Pain, in Goats
- Research Shows Caterpillar Fungus Can Slow Down Growth of Cancer Cells
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
- How Gophers Brought Mount St. Helens Back to Life in One Day
- Research Reveals How Stormy Conditions Affect Albatrosses' Ability to Feed
- The Egg or the Chicken? An Ancient Unicellular Says Egg
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
- Deaf Male Mosquitoes Don't Mate
- Researchers Develop Artificial Plants That Purify Indoor Air, Generate Electricity
Monday, November 4, 2024
- Did the World's Best-Preserved Dinosaurs Really Die in 'Pompeii-Type' Events?
- Fossil of Huge Terror Bird Offers New Information About Wildlife in South America 12 Million Years Ago
Thursday, October 31, 2024
- Echolocating Bats Use an Acoustic Cognitive Map for Navigation
- New Methods for Whale Tracking and Rendezvous Using Autonomous Robots
- Why Elephants Never Forget but Fleas Have, Well, the Attention Span of a Flea
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
- Alcohol Consumption Among Non-Human Animals May Not Be as Rare as Previously Thought, Say Ecologists
- Solar-Powered Animal Cells
- Sinuses Prevented Prehistoric Crocodile Relatives from Deep Diving
- It's Not to Be. Universe Too Short for Shakespeare Typing Monkeys
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
- Oceanographers Record the Largest Predation Event Ever Observed in the Ocean
- Beehive Fences Are Highly Effective in Reducing Human-Elephant Conflict, but Researchers Warn of Future Risks
- Weddell Seals in the Antarctic Strategically Time Their Most Extreme Dives to Maximize Foraging
- Fossil Hunters Strike Gold With New Species
- Dinosaurs Thrived After Ice, Not Fire, Says a New Study of Ancient Volcanism
Monday, October 28, 2024
- Keeping Fewer Friends Protects Aging Monkeys from Diseases
- Co-Culture System for Sustainable Cultured Meat Production
- Lab-Grown Pork Gets Support from Sorghum Grain
- Why Langurs Drink Salt Water
- Pythons Can Swallow Even Bigger Prey Than Scientists Realized
Friday, October 25, 2024
Thursday, October 24, 2024
- Human Actions Likely Cause Insect Color Change
- Gut Bacteria Transfer Genes to Disable Weapons of Their Competitors
- Study of Chick Peeps Could Improve Understanding of Animal Emotions
- Unnoticeable Electric Currents Could Reduce Skin Infections
- Common Drug Shows Promise in Extending Lifespan
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
- Paleontologists Discover Colorado 'swamp Dweller' That Lived Alongside Dinosaurs
- With 'electro-Agriculture,' Plants Can Produce Food in the Dark and With 94% Less Land, Bioengineers Say
- Researchers Use the Sounds of Healthy Coral Reefs to Encourage Growth of a New Species of Coral Larvae