This is an elephant in Namibia.Credit: Photo courtesy of Andrew Schaefer
Despite reported differences in appearance and behavior, DNA evidence finds that Namibian desert elephants share the same DNA as African savanna elephants. However, Namibian desert-dwelling elephants should be protected...
Frigatebirds reaches a wingspan of over two meters. They are excellent gliders and can cover several hundred kilometers a day.© B. Voirin
Birds engage in all types of sleep in flight, but in remarkably small amounts.
For the first time, researchers...
The fossil of a 300 million year old primitive jawless fish - a lamprey - about 6 cm in length. The eyes are the two dark circles on the right-hand side and are so well-preserved the retina and lens...
Painted turtle.Credit: Nicole Valenzuela
A gene for red color vision that originated in the reptile lineage around 250m years ago has resulted in the bright red bird feathers and 'painted' turtles we see today, and may be evidence that dinosaurs...
Researchers from New Zealand's University of Otago have discovered the molecular mechanism by which queen honeybees carefully control worker bees' fertility.
It has long been known that worker bees have a very limited ability to reproduce in a hive with...
This map shows the area covered by a new University of Utah study that concludes a population boom and resulting scarcity of wild foods are what caused early people in eastern North America to domesticate wild food plants for...
Migratory birds often use warm, rising atmospheric currents to gain height with little energy expenditure when flying over long distances.
It's a behavior known as thermal soaring that requires complex decision-making within the turbulent environment of a rising column of...
Conichnus burrows are trace fossils: the surface bumps represent vertical tubes that were originally occupied by anemone-like animals that may have fed on Ediacaran larvae.Credit: Simon Darrroch, Vanderbilt University
Newly discovered fossil evidence from Namibia strengthens the proposition that the...
As palm oil production expands from Southeast Asia into tropical regions of the Americas and Africa, vulnerable forests and species on four continents face increased risk of loss, a new Duke University-led study finds.
The largest areas of vulnerable forest...
The human ability to control voice and learn new sounds may be traceable back to the great apes after all. Credit: © David Wynia / Flickr
An adolescent orangutan called Rocky could provide the key to understanding how speech in...
In 2004 Reid Brewer of the University of Alaska Southeast measured an unusual beaked whale that turned up dead in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. A tissue sample from the carcass later showed that the whale was one of the newly...
