Since the success of the Jurassic Park film series, it is widely known that insects from the Age of the Dinosaurs can be found exceptionally well preserved in amber, which is in fact fossilised tree resin.
Especially diverse is the animal fauna preserved in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Burma). Over the last few years, the almost...
Some prehistoric horses were homebodies
Unlike today's zebras, prehistoric horses in parts of North America did not make epic migrations to find food or fresh water, according to a new study by the University of Cincinnati.
The findings suggest Florida was something of a horse paradise 5 million years ago, providing everything the animals could want in a relatively small area.
The...
Groups of pilot whales have their own dialects
In humans, different social groups, cities, or regions often have distinct accents and dialects. Those vocal traits are not unique to us, however. A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has found that short-finned pilot whales living off the coast of Hawai'i have their own sorts of vocal dialects, a discovery that...
Social animals have more parasitic infections but lower infection-related costs
Animals living in large groups tend to have more parasites than less social animals do, but according to a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, they may also be better protected from the negative effects of those parasites.
Ecologists at the University of Georgia found that Grant's gazelles that live in larger groups...
Nightlights for stream dwellers? No, thanks
Artificial light at night isn't just a health problem for those of us sitting in bed scrolling through Instagram instead of hitting the sack -- it hurts entire outdoor ecosystems.
When the critters that live in and around streams and wetlands are settling into their nighttime routines, streetlights and other sources of illumination filter down through...
The oldest large-sized predatory dinosaur comes from the Italian Alps
Early Jurassic predatory dinosaurs are very rare, and mostly small in size. Saltriovenator zanellai, a new genus and species described in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ -- the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences by Italian paleontologists, is the oldest known ceratosaurian, and the world's largest (one ton) predatory dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic (Sinemurian, ~198...