Life
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Paleontology
Young and Helpless: Fossils suggest that dinosaur parents cared
Skeletal remains found in the fossilized eggs of an early dinosaur hint that adults of the species may have cared for their hatchlings.
- Animals
Wing Ding: Bird rubs feathers for cricketlike song
Scientists say that they have found the first vertebrate to make its courtship music in the same way as a cricket does.
- Animals
Meat-Eating Caterpillar: It hunts snails and ties them down
A newly named species of Hawaiian caterpillar sneaks up on a resting snail and quickly spins silk strands around it, lashing it to the spot, and then eats it.
- Animals
Ladybug mom provides infertile eggs as baby food
When food gets scarce, multicolored Asian ladybugs lay extra dud eggs that can end up as emergency rations for their young.
- Plants
Mommy Greenest
Green leafy moms take care of their offspring in ways that go beyond wrapping them in nice, snug seed coats and packing a nutritious lunch for them.
- Animals
Is eyeless sea creature fishing with a red light?
Researchers off the coast of California have captured three deep-water siphonophores, relatives of jellyfish, and observed in the lab that the creatures twitch little red lights that could be lures for fish.
- Plants
Honey, We Shrank the Snow Lotus: Picking big plants reduces species’ height
Years of harvesting the larger plants of a Himalayan wildflower used in traditional medicines may be driving the evolution of a stubbier plant form.
- Animals
More junk makes for better dads
A new analysis links dutiful fatherhood in prairie voles to a stretch of DNA once dismissed as meaningless.
- Animals
He Clones, She Clones: Dad, mom ants as different species
In the little fire ant, males and queens clone themselves, the closest science has gotten to declaring males and females as separate species.
- Plants
Long search reveals cell receptor for plant growth
More than 70 years after biologists identified the important plant growth hormone auxin, they have finally found a cell-receptor molecule for it.
- Animals
Save the Tapir
Tapirs are relatives of horses and rhinos. Sometimes known as “living fossils,” these unusual animals inhabit jungle and forest lands in Central and South America and Southeast Asia. The Tapir Gallery provides information about tapirs, including images and an extensive bibliography. A student section of the Web site, produced by the Tapir Preservation Fund, provides […]
- Animals
Dee for Danger: Chickadees add notes as threat grows
Chickadees change their alarm calls depending on how serious a lurking predator seems.
