With their impressive eyes, Herculean strength, and punches with the force of a 22-caliber bullet, mantis shrimp are some of the ocean’s most impressive tiny wonders. These sucker punches are used on animals like worms, squid, and fish that they are preying on, predators, and each other. New research found that…
Read MoreHow sweat and stamina helped make humans exceptional runners–and hunters
Endurance running is not just a hobby for modern marathoners or for posting on social media. A new look into the anthropological history of endurance running when hunting for game shows that it may be just as efficient as other more traditional hunting methods like foraging. The findings are described…
Read MoreExpressive elephants use gestures and vocal cues to communicate
Communication is more than just verbal cues. It’s also glances and gestures and many primates, including humans, use motions to convey their message. Similarly, African elephants (Loxodonta africana) may change their greetings depending on whether the other elephant is looking at them. The gentle giants also use different combinations of…
Read MoreWhy these parrots sometimes kill each other’s chicks
Green-rumped parrotlets appear to have high instances of both adoption and infanticide, showcasing two very different sides of life in the animal kingdom. A study published May 6 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) details what drives them to go to two extremes when it…
Read MoreSwarm of tiny snail robots stick together to form new structures
Researchers have built a swarm of miniature, snail-inspired robots, minus all the mucus. Instead, a retractable suction cup works in tandem with the remote-controlled machine’s tank-like treads to maneuver across both difficult terrain and over each other. Biomimicry is nothing new within the field of robotics. But while many aquatic…
Read MoreSperm whales may have their own ‘alphabet’
Sperm whales have their own unique cultures, accents, and potentially a phonetic alphabet. A team from MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) may have decoded this phonetic alphabet that reveals sophisticated structures within sperm whale communication that could be similar to human phonetics…
Read MoreBigger-brained gull species thrive in urban spaces
Despite the reputation for being the trash pandas of the bird world, seagulls are kind of the masters of evolution. They can survive and thrive alongside humans, have a remarkable memory, and some have been observed using pieces of food to bait fish the way primates use tools. The seagull…
Read MoreOrangutan observed using a plant to treat an open wound
Observers have documented multiple animal species using plants for self-medicinal purposes, such as great apes eating plants that treat parasitic infections or rubbing vegetation on sore muscles. But a wild orangutan recently displayed something never observed before—he treated his own open wound by activating a plant’s medical properties using his…
Read MoreHow saber-toothed cats’ baby teeth kept their adult fangs from breaking
The saber-toothed cats that once prowled modern day California had more distinct dental features than even their sabers would suggest. Some of the complete skulls had a tooth socket occupied by two teeth–a permanent saber tooth and a baby tooth that would eventually fall out. These double-toothed sockets may have…
Read MoreT. rex was probably about as intelligent as a crocodile
New research is throwing some cold water on the idea that the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex was as smart as a primate. These possibly scaly-lipped theropods were about as smart as living reptiles like crocodiles, but not quite as intelligent as monkeys. The findings are detailed in a study published April…
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