The cheetah is social, like primates, yet unlike primates its frontal lobe is relatively small. Why? It may be a consequence of its unusual skull shape, an adaptation for high-speed pursuits.Credit: © Jon Mountjoy / Flickr
The brains of wild...
One of the last remaining megaherbivores, forest elephants shape their environment by serving as seed dispersers and forest bulldozers as they eat over a hundred species of fruit, trample bushes, knock over trees and create trails and clearings. Their...
A new study by scientists from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, shows a well-known group of extinct marine reptiles had an early burst in their diversity and evolution—but that a failure to adapt in the long-run...
By introducing a chemical cocktail to granulosa cells, researchers in China induced the cells to transform into functional oocytes in mice. Once fertilized, these oocytes were then successfully able to produce healthy offspring, showing no differences from naturally bred...
Still photos depict a single cycle of a bat's head waggle, intended to help it to focus its hearing and zero in on prey.Credit: Johns Hopkins University
"It's an adorable behavior, and I was curious about the purpose," said Melville...
Compared with the rest of the animal kingdom, mammals have the biggest brains and produce some of the smallest litters of offspring. A newly described fossil of an extinct mammal relative -- and her 38 babies -- is among...
Illustration showing size comparison of Australian marsupials including new extinct species of carnivorous marsupial, Whollydooleya tomnpatrichorum, from New Riversleigh fossil site in Queensland.Credit: Illustration: Karen Black/UNSW
A new species of extinct flesh-eating marsupial that terrorised Australia's drying forests about 5...
The fluttery flight of butterflies has so far been somewhat of a mystery to researchers, given their unusually large and broad wings relative to their body size. Now researchers at Lund University in Sweden have studied the aerodynamics of...
James Cook University (JCU) scientists in Australia have found high carbon dioxide levels cause squid to bungle attacks on their prey.
PhD candidate Blake Spady from JCU's ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies led the investigation. He said...
Australian researchers have discovered what is thought to be the world's oldest recorded spider, unlocking key information about the mysterious eight-legged creature.
The research, published in Pacific Conservation Biology, suggests the 43-year-old Giaus Villosus trapdoor matriarch, who recently died during...
Detail from an embryo of the scalidophoran Markuelia from the Middle Cambrian of Australia.
Credit: Philip Donoghue - University of Bristol
The origin of animals was one of the most important events in the history of Earth. Beautifully preserved fossil embryos...
