Search Results for: Vertebrates
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- Paleontology
This dinosaur’s ride may have been a glide
A new dino called Yi qi may have taken to the skies with wings akin to those of pterosaurs and flying squirrels.
- Animals
Hummingbirds evolved a strange taste for sugar
While other birds seem to lack the ability to taste sugar, hummingbirds detect sweetness using a repurposed sensor that normally responds to savory flavors.
- Life
Fossil fish eye has 300 million-year-old rods and cones
A fossil fish shows the earliest evidence of rods and cones, cells essential for color vision in vertebrates.
- Animals
A fish reared out of water walks better
The normally aquatic fish Senegal bichir raised on land suggests how ancient species might have transitioned into terrestrial ones.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Conservationists should make friends with hunters
A survey of outdoor enthusiasts in rural New York finds that both hunters and birdwatchers are likely to engage in conservation behaviors, such as donating money.
- Animals
Cats and foxes are driving Australia’s mammals extinct
Since the arrival of Europeans in Australia, a startling number of mammal species have disappeared. A new study puts much of the blame on introduced cats and foxes.
- Animals
Just enough fat is good for an elephant seal
Fat affects the buoyancy of marine mammals. As elephant seals get fatter, they can spend less energy swimming and more time foraging, a new study finds.
- Genetics
Rainbow trout genome shows how genetic material evolved
The finding challenges the idea that whole genome duplications are followed by quick, massive reorganization and deletions of genetic material.
- Animals
‘Planet of the Bugs’ reveals the secrets to insects’ success
Entomologist Scott Richard Shaw explores the evolution of insects and how they came to rule the world.
By Sid Perkins - Paleontology
Oldest true dolphin species gets a new name
A dolphin species first described in the 1970s has gotten a new name but still retains the title of oldest true dolphin species identified to date.
- Paleontology
Fossils push back origins of modern mammals
Fossils of three newly identified early mammals from China suggest that the common ancestor of today’s mammals lived over 200 million years ago.
By Meghan Rosen - Animals
Slow, cold reptiles may breathe like energetic birds
Finding birdlike air patterns in lungs of crocodilians and in more distantly related lizards raises the possibility that one-way airflow evolved far earlier than birds themselves did.
By Susan Milius