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These aren't snakes, people - they are lizards
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Four species of legless lizard have been identified in the sand dunes of Antioch, California. This picture introduces Anniella grinnelli, one of the recently found species. It has a bright yellow belly and a lilac back with deep purple lines, and was named after Joseph Grinnell, the first director of the Berkeley Zoology Museum.
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2604 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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Can anyone whisper, evolution?
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Zookeepers at Central Park Zoo in the US assumed their cotton-top tamarins were falling silent every time someone entered their enclosure, but spectrograms, which provide visual representations of sound, revealed what was really going on. These little monkeys were actually whispering their alarm calls instead of shouting them, which is the first evidence of whispering in a non-human primate species.
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3065 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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Liver genes play a role in sleeping
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New research has shown that liver genes play a key role in regulating our body clock, and could be the target for treatments that help shift workers and international travellers 'reset' their internal rhythm and reduce their risk of obesity and diabetes.
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2616 |
savio |
10 years ago |
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Self-exploding ants
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 Carpenter ants ( Camponotus cylindricus) are found in Borneo and expel the lethal sticky substance to defend their colony. Both ant and invader are killed in these attacks; they fall from the canopy as a pair into the leaf litter below, to eventually be eaten by something. Most of the bodies of the south-east Asian Camponotus cylindricus ants are for storage of the deadly secretion. The insects react quickly - when researchers lightly touched them with forceps their abdomen walls ruptured. ...
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2509 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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So, chemistry is all theory, right?
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Using high-resolution atomic force microscopy, a hydrogen bond has been imaged for the first time. This technique is quite similar to the one used to photograph bonds breaking and reforming that was announced earlier this year.
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4730 |
savio |
10 years ago |
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It's no wonder this species was so hard to find
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Biologists from James Cook University have discovered a new species of leaf-tailed gecko in Australia. The lizard is highly camouflaged against the granite boulders it lives on and grows to around 12 cm. It's been named the Cape Melville leaf-tailed gecko ( Saltaurius eximius) after the region in northern Queensland where it was found.
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6441 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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Imagine staying in flight for six months straight
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New data shows alpine swift can spend up to 200 days in the air. It is a mystery how the birds are able to physiologically accomplish this feat. While their diet is relatively straightforward, they feed on airborne insects, how they rest in midair is not known.
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3585 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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Massive flying squirrel
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Named Biswamoyopterus laoensis, with a suggested common name of the Laotian giant flying squirrel. It weighs around 1.8 kg and measures about 42 inches (1.08 m) in total length – the body is about 18 inches (0.46 m) long and the tail is 24 inches (0.62 m) long.
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2495 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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A new species of giant fish as been discovered
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The new species is member of the arapaima genus, which contains some of the world’s biggest freshwater fish that breathe air and weigh up to 200kg. Found in the central Amazon of Brazil, the new fish has been named Arapaima leptosoma and is the first new species of arapaima described since 1847.
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2 |
3942 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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Oreo cookies are more addictive than cocaine
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 Researchers have found that Oreos are as addictive as cocaine, at least for lab rats. According to the new study, eating the black and white cookies activated more neurons in the rat brain’s pleasure centre than drugs such as cocaine.
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3395 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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Who knew chili peppers were good for you
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Exposure to cold and eating chili peppers both appear to increase the activity of brown fat cells, which burn energy, rather than store it as typical "white" fat cells do, a study has found.
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6896 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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Rare whale sighting
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Considered the rarest whale population in the world, a North Pacific right whale ( Eubalaena japonica) is an incredible sight to see. And for just the second time since 1951, one of these 17-metre-long creatures was spotted off the coast of British Columbia.
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2481 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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World's cleanest bacteria
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A bacterium previously unknown to science was found in two spacecraft clean rooms, one in Florida and the other in Guiana. Space agencies use these rooms to prepare spacecraft for launch and are considered two of the most sterile places on Earth.
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5740 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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An actual semi-dinosaur foot
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This is indeed the foot of a megalapteryx - better known as a moa. Moas were huge flightless birds that went extinct approximately 600 years ago. Keep in mind that all birds are descended from dinosaurs.
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6801 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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There's no place like home
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Female lemon sharks return to the place they were born almost 15 years later to give birth to their own young, a longer-term study has revealed, confirming "homing" behaviour for the first time in sharks.
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5787 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
