Knowing what extinct animals ate has long been determined by analyzing carbon isotopes locked inside fossil teeth. For two decades, a key isotope value in these equations has been assumed to be the same for all plant-eating mammals, but new research led by Julia Tejada-Lara from the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University,...
Inbred animals face greater threat from changes to environment
Animals that are inbred make mistakes in response to changes in their surroundings, which threatens their survival, research has found.
A study found that inbred beetles were more likely to make bad decisions amid developing circumstances -- at a cost to themselves and their offspring.
The findings could inform conservation programmes and aid the understanding of wild...
Paleontologists ID two new Miocene mammals in Bolivia
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and two other universities have discovered the 13-million-year-old fossils of a pair of new species of extinct hoofed mammals known as "litopterns" from a site in Bolivia.
The animals, which look similar to small moose or deer in a paleoartist's rendering, are being dubbed Theosodon arozquetai and Llullataruca shockeyi, ungulates...
This curious animal grew larger over time — but its brain didn't quite keep up
A new U of T Scarborough study has found that the ancestor of the modern day mountain beaver had a larger relative brain size.
The research, which is published in the journal Palaeontology, offers a rare case of an animal's brain becoming smaller relative to its body size, likely due to a change in its lifestyle...
Tropical 'banana eater' birds lived in North America 52 million years ago
A fossil of an ancestor of modern tropical birds has been found in North America, proving they also used to live in the Northern Hemisphere, say scientists at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath.
As many birdwatchers know, the largest number of bird species are found in the Southern Hemisphere, with many...
New wasps named after Crocodile Dundee and Toblerone amongst 17 new genera and 29 species
A total of 17 new genera and 29 new species of parasitoid wasps were identified following a study into the material deposited at major natural history collections around the globe in an attempt to further uncover the megadiverse fauna of the group of microgastrine wasps.
The novel taxa known to inhabit the tropics, including the Afrotropical,...