Science & Technology News

How sloths breathe upside down

How sloths breathe upside down

Posted Wed, 23 Apr 2014 06:34:00 GMT by JW Dowey

The 3-fingered or 3-toed sloth can finally breathe a sloth sigh of relief. We've finally found out how it manages to breathe upside down. To be honest, we’d never thought there was a problem, but there is.

How sloths breathe upside down

Jellies delicious for this fish

Jellies delicious for this fish

Posted Mon, 14 Apr 2014 06:45:00 GMT by JW Dowey

This little sea-bream is able to conveniently dispose of and control jellyfish populations, just as the big turtles can. The research involved has a lot of relevance to turtle conservation as well as the massive jellyfish blooms reported in Japan and other parts of the world.

Jellies delicious for this fish

Leatherback logging in the Atlantic

Leatherback logging in the Atlantic

Posted Thu, 27 Mar 2014 10:10:00 GMT by JW Dowey

The study of marine turtles is linked with tagging of many other animals, but if we lose these leatherback giants of the seas, we will have lost a species that can relay how conditions millions of years ago influenced even bigger turtles and of course every other species that existed at the time.

Leatherback logging in the Atlantic

Swimming sloths with aquatic adaptations

Swimming sloths with aquatic adaptations

Posted Wed, 12 Mar 2014 07:17:00 GMT by JW Dowey

One group of sloths made the quite unlikely shift to water, possibly because of a drying environment in the Miocene. This clever paper shows how they coped with a marine life, just like early whales, by adapting their bone compactness. Our pygmy sloths on the Panamanian island of Isla Escudo de Veraguas are the most recent speciation, around 9,000 years ago. These guys were several species on a sea trip!

Swimming sloths with aquatic adaptations

Fantastic ancient fauna precedes mammal evolution

Fantastic ancient fauna precedes mammal evolution

Posted Wed, 05 Mar 2014 16:50:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Animals of unfamiliar as well as familiar types took up niches in the ancient ecosystems, as birds and mammals developed and, of course, feathered dinosaurs ruled the roost!

Fantastic ancient fauna precedes mammal evolution

Skin cancer selected our ancestors?

Skin cancer selected our ancestors?

Posted Wed, 26 Feb 2014 07:40:00 GMT by Paul Robinson

We can't find the fossils and the genome can give only some hints. How did the first human-like species survive and why did they have to be black. Mel Greaves has the answers.

Skin cancer selected our ancestors?

The right whale, by satellite

The right whale, by satellite

Posted Sun, 16 Feb 2014 16:43:00 GMT by JW Dowey

When you want to count how many rare animals are out there, remote cameras have come into their own. Now even the spy in the sky can help, with the first study of a whale species that has been having high mortality problems with its calves.

The right whale, by satellite

Hawaiian rise in endangered species

Hawaiian rise in endangered species

Posted Tue, 04 Feb 2014 15:11:00 GMT by Paul Robinson

We need technology to discover where and how endangered species survive. The US government have just declared 15 more Hawaiian species as endangered, but the islands have so many, it is difficult to see how they can all be conserved.

Hawaiian rise in endangered species

Flores Human Dwarf Debate

Flores Human Dwarf Debate

Posted Sun, 02 Feb 2014 17:01:01 GMT by Dave Armstrong

The feet of the Flores hominid might be more conclusive than the small head, if we ever come to better conclusions about its ecology, niche or even what it ate. The point is, we can’t even decide on its species and it's only 18,000 years old.

Flores Human Dwarf Debate

Flying and genome size: it’s true about the reduction!

Flying and genome size: it’s true about the reduction!

Posted Tue, 28 Jan 2014 20:03:42 GMT by JW. Dowey

From humming birds to eagles, the birds have diversified their niches worldwide. Their genome however is reduced compared to us earthbound creatures!

Flying and genome size: it’s true about the reduction!

Australian outback dingoed or natural ecosystem?

Australian outback dingoed or natural ecosystem?

Posted Thu, 16 Jan 2014 12:16:01 GMT by Colin Ricketts

When they rage at the dingo, the ignorant fail to appreciate what many of us have thought. The need for such predation and scavenging is always present, plus we all need more natural systems than the awesome monoculture we get from tropical oil palms to “recyclable” spruce plantations.

Australian outback dingoed or natural ecosystem?

How fish evolved their migratory habits

How fish evolved their migratory habits

Posted Wed, 15 Jan 2014 00:01:00 GMT by JW Dowey

You would expect an evolutionary shift to be a trend, but in one great family of fish, there is little evidence that lightning strikes twice, especially in the same freshwater ecosystem!

How fish evolved their migratory habits

Bird speciations made clear

Bird speciations made clear

Posted Wed, 01 Jan 2014 15:59:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

We can catalogue all the live and some extinct species on earth. The sooner we know all those insects and marine creatures, the quicker we can deal with conservation management in the most efficient ways possible.

Bird speciations made clear

Uruguayan fish show how they evolve

Uruguayan fish show how they evolve

Posted Tue, 24 Dec 2013 08:33:31 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Fish diversify into thousands of species, especially cichlids in African lakes. Mammals and birds can show equal diversity sometimes, so it would be intriguing to find more vertebrate classes subjected to investigations such as these, proving some genetic matches for lost and current animals we want to know more about.

Uruguayan fish show how they evolve

Manakins are athletic tropical courters

Manakins are athletic tropical courters

Posted Wed, 18 Dec 2013 12:00:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Birds are known for putting a lot of effort into their mating displays. In the tropics however, energy is at a premium, and sexual selection has been known to be more or less illogical in the abnormal effects it has on male display!

Manakins are athletic tropical courters

Chameleon aggressive display change

Chameleon aggressive display change

Posted Wed, 11 Dec 2013 09:10:00 GMT by Colin Ricketts

The way in which cephalopods and chameleons communicate is colour-based. More study is needed on how much information is passed on. The physiology, the status and the “drive” can be explained now by rate change and colour brightness in different parts of the anatomy

Chameleon aggressive display change

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Butterflies just love ants ---.

Posted Wed, 12 Sep 2018 13:31:00 GMT by JW, Dowey

First known manta ray nursery in Florida and new species news!

Posted Wed, 20 Jun 2018 08:35:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Models and mimics are marvels in SE Asia

Posted Wed, 02 May 2018 07:50:00 GMT by JW. Dowey

Otters and their social learning abilities.

Posted Wed, 30 Aug 2017 09:45:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Our vertebrate relatives have evolved plenty of Jaw

Posted Mon, 31 Jul 2017 08:59:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Salamander polyploid amazes with its genome (s)

Posted Fri, 23 Jun 2017 10:56:47 GMT by Dave Armstrong

The Tempo of Evolution is revealed on Hawaii

Posted Mon, 20 Mar 2017 09:59:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Blue whales' calls give ID of new populations

Posted Wed, 04 Jan 2017 10:36:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong

Crow wing shape and its association with species distribution.

Posted Wed, 14 Dec 2016 09:10:00 GMT by JW Dowey

The Force is with the Claw of Land Crabs

Posted Thu, 24 Nov 2016 14:20:00 GMT by Dave Armstrong