Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys, have been enjoying regular baths in the hot spring at Jigokudani in Japan for decades -- and have even become a popular tourist attraction. A team of researchers led by Rafaela Takeshita of Kyoto University in Japan have now published the first study to scientifically validate the benefits...
Digital life team creates animated 3-D models of sea turtles from live specimens
The Digital Life team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, creators of an online catalog of high-resolution, full-color 3D models of living organisms, announce today that they have released two new, online full-color animated models of a loggerhead and a green sea turtle through a collaboration with sea turtle rescue and research institutions.
In collaboration with...
Extinct monitor lizard had four eyes, fossil evidence shows
Researchers reporting in Current Biology on April 2 have evidence that an extinct species of monitor lizard had four eyes, a first among known jawed vertebrates. Today, only the jawless lampreys have four eyes.
The third and fourth eyes refer to pineal and parapineal organs, eye-like photosensory structures on the top of the head that play...
Proposed border wall will harm Texas plants and animals, scientists say
In the latest peer-reviewed publication on the potential impacts of a border wall on plants and animals, conservation biologists, led by a pair of scientists from The University of Texas at Austin, say that border walls threaten to harm endangered Texas plants and animals and cause trouble for the region's growing ecotourism industry.
In a letter...
Basking sharks gather in large groups off northeast US coast
Groups of basking sharks ranging from as few as 30 to nearly 1,400 individual animals have been observed aggregating in waters from Nova Scotia to Long Island. While individual sightings are fairly common, seeing large groups is not.
The reason why the animals congregate has not been clearly determined, although it is thought to be related...
Mice 'eavesdrop' on rats' tear signal
Tears might not seem to have an odor. But studies have shown that proteins in tears do act as pheromonal cues. For example, the tear glands of male mice produce a protein that makes females more receptive to sex. Now researchers reporting in Current Biology on March 29 have found that rat tears contain proteins...