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Ancient Whale Skulls and Directional Hearing: A Twisted Tale

By Guest PostAugust 25, 2011Nature, Scienceaaron wood, archaeocetes, asymmetric skulls, baleen whales, basilosaurus isis, biological sonar, ct scans, echolocation, fossil, julia fahlke, modern whale, mysticetes, national science foundation, nsf, odontocetes, paleontologist, philip gingerich, richard lane, robert welsh, signs of artificial deformation, skewed skulls, symmetrical skulls, terrestrial mammals, three dimensional digital model, three dimensional torsion, toothed whales, twist, university of michigan

*Skewed skulls may have helped early whales find direction of sounds in water*

Skewed skulls may have helped early whales find the direction of sounds in water and are not solely, as previously thought, a later adaptation related to echolocation.

Scientists affiliated with the University of Michigan and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) report the finding in a paper published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Hyenas’ Ability to Count Helps Them Decide to Fight or Flee

By Guest PostAugust 23, 2011Nature, Scienceafrica, animal behaviour, beacon researcher, chimpanzees, evolution of big brains, kay holekamp, Kenya, lions, michigan state university, sarah benson amram, sean dryer, spotted hyenas, study of evolution in action, virginia heinen, zoology

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Being able to count helps spotted hyenas decide to fight or flee, according to research at Michigan State University.

When animals fight, the larger group tends to win. In the current issue of Animal Behaviour, Sarah Benson-Amram, an MSU graduate student studying zoology, showed that hyenas listen to the sound of intruders’ voices to determine who has the advantage. (more…)

Pacific Walruses Studied as Sea Ice Melts

By Guest PostAugust 20, 2011Environment, Nature, Sciencearctic basin, bering, chad jay, chukchi seas, continental shelf, native village, northwest of barrow, northwestern alaska coast, pacific walrus, point lay, russia, satellite radio tags to walruses, sea, sea floor, sea ice, usgs, usgs alaska science center, walruses

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — USGS Alaska Science Center researchers, in cooperation with the Native Village of Point Lay, will attempt to attach 35 satellite radio-tags to walruses on the northwestern Alaska coast in August as part of their ongoing study of how the Pacific walrus are responding to reduced sea ice conditions in late summer and fall. (more…)

Researchers Discover Oldest Evidence of Nails in Modern Primates

By Guest PostAugust 18, 2011Naturefingernails, first modern primates, grammar of fashion, jonathan bloch, manicured nails, modern primates, primitive primate, teilhardina brandti, thermal maximum

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — From hot pink to traditional French and Lady Gaga’s sophisticated designs, manicured nails have become the grammar of fashion. (more…)

Research Reveals How Butterflies Copy Their Neighbours to Fool Birds

By Guest PostAugust 13, 2011Natureamazonian species, bates and darwin, butterfly, chromosomal region, chromosome, cnrs, DNA, eaten by birds, evolutionary thinkers, heliconius numata, liverpool university, mathieu joron, melinaea, müllerian mimicry, muséum national d'histoire naturelle, neighbouring species, non mimetic patterns, Paris, patterns of warning colouration, peppered moth, rainforest, richard ffrench constant, supergene, university of exeter, wallace, wing colour patterns, wing patterns

The mystery of how a butterfly has changed its wing patterns to mimic neighbouring species and avoid being eaten by birds has been solved by a team of scientists.

The study is published in the journal Nature. (more…)

Discovery Places Turtles Next to Lizards on Family Tree

By Guest PostJuly 22, 2011Nature, Sciencebirds, body armor, classify the strange animals, creatures' shells, crocodiles and birds, dartmouth college, evolutionary tree, harvard university, lizards and snakes, paleobiologist, retractable heads, systematics, turtles, tyler lyson, yale university

Where do turtles belong on the evolutionary tree? For decades, the mystery has proven as tough to crack as the creatures’ shells. With their body armor and retractable heads, turtles are such unique creatures that scientists have found it difficult to classify the strange animals in terms of their origins and closest relatives.

“We know turtles evolved from a common ancestor along with birds, lizards and snakes about 300 million years ago, but who modern-day turtles are most closely related to is one of the biggest and most controversial questions in the field of systematics,” said Tyler Lyson, a Yale University graduate student who studies the evolutionary relationships between different animal groups. (more…)

Pity the Boss Man

By Guest PostJuly 21, 2011Nature, Scienceadult male baboons, alpha males, baboon groups, baboons, beta males, catherine markham, ecologists, female, fertilizations, glucocoricoids, human behavior and societal structures, jeanne altmann, kaye reed, Kenya, laurence gesquiere, male, national science foundation, princeton university, sexual consortship, sexual swelling, social hierarchy, social ranks in baboons, stress hormones

*Researchers find that being at the top may come at a high cost*

Ecologists at Princeton University recently discovered top-ranking male baboons exhibit higher levels of stress hormones than second-ranking males, suggesting that being at the top of a social hierarchy may be more costly than previously thought. (more…)

Border Fences Pose Threats to Wildlife on U.S.-Mexico Border, Study Shows

By Guest PostJuly 19, 2011Nature, Sciencearroyo toad, biological diversity, border fences, california coasts, california red legged frog, conservation, department of homeland security, fire, harmful mutations, human impacts, human migration barriers, human population growth, hurricane, impacts on the ecosystem, inbreeding depression, jesse lasky, landscape, species in california, texas gulf, the jaguarondi, the university of texas at austin, threats to wildlife populations, tim keitt, unforeseen disturbances, us mexico border, walter jetz

AUSTIN, Texas — Current and proposed border fences pose significant threats to wildlife populations, with those animals living in border regions along the Texas Gulf and California coasts showing some of the greatest vulnerability, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin shows.

“Our study is the first comprehensive analysis of threats to species across the entire U.S.-Mexico border,” says Jesse Lasky, a graduate student in the laboratory of Tim Keitt, associate professor of integrative biology. “The scale at which these fences stretch across the landscape is large, so it’s important for us to also have a large-scale view of their effects across the continent.” (more…)

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