More Important to Evolution Than Thought, Beetle Study Suggests
A new study of beetles shows a genetic ‘battle of the sexes’ could be much harder to resolve and even more important to evolution than previously thought.
Continue reading… “Genetic ‘Battle of the Sexes’”
Imagine going fishing and catching this!
The giant dragonflies of ancient Earth with wingspans of up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) are generally attributed to higher oxygen atmospheric levels in the atmosphere in the past. New experiments in raising modern insects in various oxygen-enriched atmospheres have confirmed that dragonflies grow bigger with more oxygen, or hyperoxia.
Continue reading… ““How to” Raise Giant Insects!”
Following months of gruelling tests and trials, scientists now reveal the World’s strongest insect to be a species of dung beetle called Onthophagus taurus.
Continue reading… “Pulling Power Points the Way to World’s Strongest Insect — A Dung Beetle”
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have discovered that injecting a simple hormone into leeches creates a novel way to study how hormones and the nervous system work together to produce species-specific reproductive behavior.
Continue reading… “Scientists Establish Leech as Model for Study of Reproductive Behavior”
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have obtained the first recordings of brain-cell activity in an actively flying fruit fly.
Continue reading… “First Brain Recordings from Flying Fruit Flies”
A joint team from the University of Kansas and Northeastern University in China says that it has settled the long-standing question of how bird flight began.
Continue reading… “‘Microraptors’ Shed Light on Ancient Origin of Bird Flight”
Scorpions deliver a powerful, paralyzing venom — a complex cocktail of poisonous peptides — that immobilize animal prey on the spot. Some of the toxins in this cocktail damage only insects, which is why a Tel Aviv University researcher is harnessing them to create a safe and ecologically sound pesticide.
Continue reading… “Deadly Scorpion Provides Safe Pesticide”
The grooming behaviour displayed by primates is due to less rational behaviour than often thought. According to a computer model developed by scientists at the University of Groningen, one basic rule explains all possible grooming patterns: individuals will groom others if they’re afraid they’ll lose from them in a fight.
Scientists once thought of tool use as a defining feature of humans. That’s until examples of tool use came in from other primates, along with birds and an array of other mammals. Now, a report in the December 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, adds an octopus to the growing list of tool users. (Video)
Continue reading… “Coconut-Carrying Octopus Surprises Scientists”
Testosterone gets female canaries singing. Dutch researcher Tessa Hartog knows how you can make a female canary sing using testosterone and the protein BDNF. Normally, female canaries don’t sing, but with a few tweaks, the females’ brain structure can be altered in a way that lets them burst into song. Their singing can even be considered sexy.
Continue reading… “Female Canaries Sing Sexily With Testosterone”
We all know adolescents get testy from time to time. Thank goodness we don’t have young tyrannosaurs running around the neighborhood.
The evolution of altruism has long puzzled researchers and has mainly been explained previously from ultimate perspectives—”I will help you now because I expect there to be some long-term benefit to me”. However, a new study by researchers at the Primate Research Institute (PRI) and the Wildlife Research Center (WRC) of Kyoto University shows that chimpanzees altruistically help conspecifics, even in the absence of direct personal gain or immediate reciprocation, although the chimpanzees were much more likely to help each other upon request than voluntarily.
Continue reading… “Chimpanzees Help Each Other On Request But Not Voluntarily”
