New research led by the American Museum of Natural History has uncovered five new species of snakes in Ecuador and Peru with peculiar dining etiquette: they suck the viscous bodies of snails out of their shells. The new species, most of which are considered endangered or vulnerable, are described in a study published today in...
Mammals going nocturnal to avoid humans
Human activity is causing the planet's mammals to flee daylight for the protection of night, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley.
The study, published today in the journal Science, and supported in part by the National Science Foundation, represents the first effort to quantify the global effects of human activity on...
Amber fossils provide oldest evidence of frogs in wet, tropical forests
About 99 million years ago, a tiny juvenile frog in present-day Myanmar was suddenly trapped in sap with a beetle, perhaps its intended next meal.
Unlucky for the frog, but lucky for science.
An extinct species now named Electrorana limoae, it's one of four fossils that provide the earliest direct evidence of frogs living in wet, tropical...
Endocrine-disrupting pesticides impair frog reproduction
In a new study, researchers from Sweden and Britain have investigated how the endocrine-disrupting substance linuron affects reproduction in the West African clawed frog, Xenopus tropicalis. The scientists found that linuron, which is used as a pesticicide, impaired the males' fertility, and that tadpoles developed ovaries instead of testicles to a greater extent, which caused...
For 100 million years, amber freezes a tableau of tick's worst day ever
One day in Myanmar during the Cretaceous period, a tick managed to ensnare itself in a spider web. Realizing its predicament, the tick struggled to get free. But the spider that built the web was having none of it. The spider popped over to the doomed tick and quickly wrapped it up in silk, immobilizing...
Large-scale whaling in north Scandinavia may date back to 6th century
The intensive whaling that has pushed many species to the brink of extinction today may be several centuries older than previously assumed. This view is held by archaeologists from Uppsala and York whose findings are presented in the European Journal of Archaeology.
Museum collections in Sweden contain thousands of Iron Age board-game pieces. New studies of...