A new theory aims to explain how the complex vertebrate body, with its skeleton, muscles, nervous and cardiovascular systems, arises from a single cell during development and how these systems evolved over time. The theory, called embryo geometry, is...
The thermal traits of a leaf, critical for photosynthesis, may be under strong evolutionary selection that occurs in response to environmental temperatures. Here a thermal leaf image details temperature variation, which greatly affects plant functions since temperature is closely...
Trained dogs are around the fMRI scanner.Credit: Enik Kubinyi
Dogs have the ability to distinguish vocabulary words and the intonation of human speech through brain regions similar to those that humans use, a new study reports.
Attila Andics et al. note...
Professor Jennifer Firn, right, and colleague Emma La Douceur, are part of a global network of researchers testing the impact increased nutrient levels is having on biodiversity.Credit: QUT: Jennifer Firn
An unnatural balance of nutrients threatens biodiversity in a survival...
Scientists predict that as Earth warms and climate patterns morph in response, animals will be forced to move to survive. That usually means hightailing it to higher latitudes as equatorial areas become too hot and dry.
This movement pattern has...
Like people, chimps prefer teamwork over competition.Credit: © pattoise / Flickr
When given a choice between cooperating or competing, chimpanzees choose to cooperate five times more frequently Yerkes National Primate Research Center researchers have found. This, the researchers say, challenges...
MIT-WHOI Joint Program Student Max Kaplan scuba diving over a coral reef in the Virgin Islands back.Credit: T. Aran Mooney, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will help researchers understand the ways...
An African elephant family in Amboseli, Kenya. A Stanford scientist is among those calling for an international effort to save large animals from extinction. (Image credit: Varun R. Goswami)
Biologist Rodolfo Dirzo is one of dozens of researchers from around...
This is an illustration of warbler.Credit: Liz Clayton Fuller, Bartels Science Illustration Intern.
For decades, conservationists have considered blue-winged warblers to be a threat to golden-winged warblers, a species being considered for federal Endangered Species protection. Blue-winged warbler populations have...
Adult Cave Bear with cub from Goyet Cave in Belgium.Credit: © RBINS
Senckenberg scientists have studied the feeding habits of the extinct Cave Bear. Based on the isotope composition in the collagen of the bears' bones, they were able to...
Reconstruction by palaeoartist Peter Schouten of Microleo attenboroughi prowling along the branches of rainforest trees in search of prey. Credit: Peter Schouten
The fossil remains of a new tiny species of marsupial lion which prowled the lush rainforests of northern...
