On a certain level, extinction is all about energy. Animals move over their surroundings like pacmen, chomping up resources to fuel their survival. If they gain a certain energy threshold, they reproduce, essentially earning an extra life. If they encounter too many empty patches, they starve, and by the end of the level it's game...
Bats as barometer of climate change
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Bats spend every night hard at work for local farmers, consuming over half of their own weight in insects, many of which are harmful agricultural pests, such as the noctuid moths, corn earworm and fall armyworm. And now they are arriving earlier in the season, and some of them are reluctant...
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Middle Earth preserved in giant bird dung
While the giant birds that once dominated New Zealand are all extinct, a study of their preserved dung (coprolites) has revealed many aspects of their ancient ecosystem, with important insights for ongoing conservation efforts.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today, the study, by the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient...
Recordings spout secrets behind blue whale behavior
Researchers are using underwater microphones to interpret and characterize the calls of blue whales swimming through Southern California's oceans, revealing new insights into the behavior of these endangered marine mammals, according to new research being presented at the Ocean Sciences Meeting here on Tuesday.
Stretching nearly 30 meters (100 feet) long and weighing up to 172...
Deep-sea fish use hydrothermal vents to incubate eggs
[unable to retrieve full-text content]An international team of researchers have discovered egg cases of deep-sea fish near hydrothermal vents. The team believes that deep-sea skates, a relative of sharks and rays, use the warm water near the vents to accelerate the typically years-long incubation time of their eggs....
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Fastest spin on Earth? For animals that rely on legs, scientists say one spider takes gold
There's no sneaking by this spider. New research from the University of California Merced and the California Academy of Sciences shows that individuals from the spider family Selenopidae -- commonly known as flattie spiders -- can sense prey approaching from any direction and whip around in one-eighth of a second to strike. High-speed footage reveals...