For around one hundred and fifty years students have been dogmatically told giraffes have evolved long necks by stretching them to browse from tall trees. Chinese scientists studying a fossil skull and vertebrae of an extinct “giraffoid”, have now come up with the new theory. “Giraffoids” are a group of mammals that includes living giraffes […]
The many breeds of domestic dogs vary enormously in body size, even though all domestic dogs belong to one species. An international team of scientists has carried out a wide-ranging study of genes that influence body size in domestic and wild dogs. A gene named IGF1 is already known to have a strong influence on […]
Each year the conservation organisation Forest and Bird asks people to vote for New Zealand’s Bird of Year. This year the organisers included the long tailed bat in the list of candidates. The bat received 7,031 out of 56,733 votes, putting it almost 3,000 votes ahead of the next most popular choice, the kakapo. The […]
Elephants lose tusks “by evolution” claim media reports. During the civil war in Mozambique (1977-1992) ivory poachers killed elephants and sold the tusks to finance their war. During this time the population of elephants declined drastically. The elephant population is now making a comeback, but with a change – more female elephants are lacking tusks. […]
Giant hippos lived in warm Britain, according to reports in ScienceDaily and University of Leicester News 4 October 2021 and Journal of Quaternary Science, 4 October 2021 doi: 10.1002/jqs.3375. Palaeontologists from University of Leicester and Royal Holloway, University of London, have found the tooth of an extinct hippopotamus named Hippopotamus antiquus in Westbury Cave in […]
Potty training cows will aid climate control. Just when you thought the man-made global warming proponents’ suggestions for controlling climate couldn’t get any sillier, this article was published in a serious scientific journal: “Learned control of urinary reflexes in cattle to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions”. Current Biology, 13 September 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.07.011. The introduction […]
Panda jaw evolved for bamboo, according reports in ScienceDaily and University of Turku (UTU) Press Release 9 July 2021 and Scientific Reports, 9 July 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-93808-2. When pandas eat bamboo stems they first use their premolar teeth to peel off the outer layer which contains harmful chemicals and abrasive crystals. Then they grind up […]
Bats born knowing speed of sound, according to reports in ScienceDaily 5 May 2021 and ScienceAlert 6 May 2021, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 5 May 2021 doi: 10.1073/pnas.2024352118. Echolocating bats work out how far away an object or landing place is by using the time taken for sounds to bounce off […]
Aussie animals glow in the dark, according to reports in ABC News 26 November 2020 and 8 December 2020, and Mammalia 15 October 2020, doi: 10.1515/mammalia-2020-0027. Scientists at Northland College, USA, were investigating biofluorescence – a phenomenon seen when fur, feathers or skin absorb ultra-violet (UV) light and re-emit visible light. If UV light is […]
Polar bears benefit from arctic warming, according reports in ScienceDaily 23 September 2020 and Global Change Biology, 23 September 2020, doi: 10.1111/gcb.15286. An international team of scientists have studied a population of polar bears living in Kane Basin a region in the high Arctic between Ellesmere Island, Canada and Greenland. They compared the bears’ overall […]