Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Paleontology
First Steps
Using materials as diverse as lobster eggs, dead birds, and the headless carcass of a rhinoceros, scientists are conducting experiments that scrutinize the first steps of the fossilization process.
- Ecosystems
Life Underfoot: Microbial biodiversity takes surprising twist
When it comes to numbers of bacterial species, rainforest dirt is virtually a desert, but desert dirt bursts with biodiversity.
- Animals
Little Professor: Ants rank as first true animal teachers
The best evidence so far of true teaching in a nonhuman animal comes from ants. With video.
- Animals
First maternal care filmed in squid
At least one squid species turns out to be a caring mom after all, say researchers who filmed the creatures using remote-control cameras positioned deep in the Pacific Ocean. With Video.
- Animals
The Trouble with Chasing a Bee
Radar has long been able to detect high-flying clouds of insects, but it's taken much longer for scientists to figure out how to track your average bee.
- Animals
Locust Upset: DNA puts swarmer’s origin in Africa
The desert locust was not an ancient export from the Americas, according to a new DNA analysis.
- Animals
Ant Iron Chefs: Larvae fix dinner but don’t sneak snacks
Movies of an ant colony show that larvae are the ones that prepare dinner when meat is on the menu. With Video.
- Paleontology
Mammoth Findings: Asian elephant is closest living kin
DNA studies suggest that the woolly mammoth is more closely related to the Asian elephant than to the African elephant.
- Ecosystems
Squirt Alert
A sea animal of unknown origins and lacking any known predator has begun commandeering ecosystems in cool coastal waters throughout the world.
- Ecosystems
When Worms Fly: Insect larvae can survive bird guts
Insects can travel as larval stowaways in the guts of migrating birds.
- Ecosystems
Feminized cod on the high seas
Male cod in the open ocean are producing an egg-yolk protein ordinarily made only by females, signaling their potential exposure to estrogen-mimicking pollutants.
