Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Green was this ancient snake’s signature color
Scientists have reconstructed the skin coloration of a fossilized snake that’s about 10 million years old.
- Archaeology
Ancient Assyrians buried their dead with turtles
Why did ancient Assyrians bury their dead with turtles? The reptiles may have served as symbolic protectors of the dead.
- Animals
Climate change now bigger menace than forest loss for snowshoe hares
Shorter snow seasons push climate change ahead of direct habitat loss as menace for Wisconsin snowshoe hares.
- Animals
Ancient arachnid was almost a spider
A newly discovered ancient arachnid might offer clues on spider origins.
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- Animals
Why some male hyenas leave and others are content to stay home
Having access to enough females, and a mom to help, can keep a male hyena from leaving his clan.
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- Microbes
Diverse yeasts make their home on coffee and cacao beans
Yeasts in coffee and cacao are shaped by geography and human migration, genetic analysis finds.
- Genetics
Scientists build minimum-genome bacterium
Minimal genome organism reveals how much scientists don’t know about biology.
- Genetics
Zika may have flown to Brazil in 2013
The brand of Zika currently floating around the Americas traces its origins to Asia and may have arrived in Brazil by air as early as 2013.
- Animals
Unknown species hide among Texas cave crickets
A study of population structure among a genus of cave crickets reveals that new species are waiting to be discovered.
