Imagine that Labradors and golden retrievers died out a million years ago, leaving only fossilized skeletons behind. Without the help of DNA, how could we determine that a fossil Labrador, a fossil retriever and a modern Chihuahua all belong to the same species, Canis lupus familiaris? And could we look at the wide variety of...
Sea turtles use flippers to manipulate food
Sea turtles use their flippers to handle prey despite the limbs being evolutionarily designed for locomotion, a discovery by Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers published today in PeerJ.
The in-depth examination of the phenomenon -- Limb-use By Foraging Sea Turtles, an Evolutionary Perspective -- by authors Jessica Fujii and Dr. Kyle Van Houtan and others reveals a...
Decade of fossil collecting gives new perspective on Triassic period, emergence of dinosaurs
After a great mass extinction shook the world about 252 million years ago, animal life outside of the ocean began to take hold. The earliest mammals entered the scene, and reptiles -- including early dinosaurs -- lived on Pangea, the name given to the giant landmass in which all of the world's continents were joined...
Iconic swallowtail butterfly at risk from climate change
Norfolk's butterflies, bees, bugs, birds, trees and mammals are at major risk from climate change as temperatures rise -- according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
Researchers carried out the first in-depth audit of its kind for a region in the UK to see how biodiversity might be impacted in Norfolk as the...
How do snakes eat live crabs? By being finicky diners
Anyone who has sat down to a summer crab feast knows how hard, messy and delicious they are.
But University of Cincinnati biologist Bruce Jayne found some water snakes that specialize in catching and consuming live crabs, without the benefit of mallets, bibs or utensils.
Snakes can't chew their food so anything they eat must be bite-sized,...
Hunting turns bear cubs into mama's boys (and girls)
We live in the Antropocene -- where human impact extends to all corners of the globe. New research shows that this also applies to the relationship between mothers and cubs of the Scandinavian brown bear. Human hunting has changed the characteristics of mother bear's care and how often she has cubs.
Stays with mother bear longer
"Generally,...