Although dairy pastoralism once made Mongolian steppe herders successful enough to conquer most of Asia and Europe, the origins of this way of life on the East Asian steppe are still unclear. Now an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has uncovered evidence that dairying...
More affordable and effective conservation of species
No one had reported seeing the strange creature -- a cross between a bear and a monkey -- since before the Great Depression. Then, this past summer, an amateur biologist stumbled upon the presumed-extinct Wondiwoi tree kangaroo while trekking through Papua New Guinea. The revelation underscored how little we still know about the natural world...
How to reduce the impact of shipping vessel noise on fish? Slow them down
The western Canadian Arctic's natural underwater soundscape has been shielded from the din of commercial shipping by the sea ice that covers the area, rendering it mostly inaccessible to shipping vessels. But with large amounts of ice shrinking in the Arctic Ocean, a growing number of ships are gaining access to the area. This trend...
Saber-toothed cats with oral injuries ate softer foods
Saber-toothed cats with oral injuries ate softer foods than their uninjured counterparts, who may have provided injured cats with soft scraps.
Indianapolis, IN, USA: Saber-toothed cats, the large felid predators that once roamed Southern California, may have eaten softer foods after suffering oral injuries, according to a new study. Microscopic damage patterns on teeth from fossilized...
Bioluminescent substance discovered in Brazilian cave worm larva
An insect larva found in the caves of Intervales State Park, an Atlantic Rainforest remnant in the municipality of Ribeirão Grande, São Paulo State, Brazil, was initially of no interest to the research group led by biochemist Vadim Viviani, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in Sorocaba. The researchers are investigating...
How invading jumping genes are thwarted
Since Carnegie Institution's Barbara McClintock received her Nobel Prize on her discovery of jumping genes in 1983, we have learned that almost half of our DNA is made up of jumping genes -- called transposons. Given their ability of jumping around the genome in developing sperm and egg cells, their invasion triggers DNA damage and...