Chimpanzees at a Zambian sanctuary have sparked a curious trend: inserting blades of grass into their ears and even their rears, with no apparent function. The behavior spread socially across groups, suggesting that chimps, like humans, can adopt arbitrary customs purely through imitation, revealing new layers of primate culture and group identity. A Trend Born ...
Kanzi, a world-famous bonobo who astonished researchers with his linguistic and tool-making abilities, has passed away at the age of 44. His groundbreaking achievements challenged long-held beliefs about animal cognition and language, forever changing the way scientists view primate intelligence. A Remarkable Journey Kanzi’s journey into the scientific spotlight began at the Great Ape Trust ...
Sixty-six million years ago, a 10-kilometer-wide asteroid struck Earth, unleashing one of the most catastrophic mass extinctions in planetary history. The event obliterated three-quarters of Earth’s species, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Yet, in a stroke of evolutionary defiance, a small, secretive group of reptiles known as night lizards (family Xantusiidae) survived in the region closest ...
A groundbreaking expedition to Antarctica’s Denman Glacier has revealed how ancient DNA (aDNA) can help scientists predict the future of Earth’s ecosystems. As climate change accelerates, researchers are turning to genetic material preserved in marine life to reconstruct past environments and anticipate how ecosystems might respond to ongoing environmental shifts. The study, led by Australian ...
Scientists have issued a stark warning: ocean acidification has crossed planetary boundaries, threatening marine ecosystems and coastal economies. A study published in Global Change Biology reveals that by 2020, ocean acidity had already reached critical levels in some regions, surpassing the safe threshold for marine life. The findings suggest that the rapid decline in ocean ...
A partial dinosaur fossil has been discovered 763 feet beneath the parking lot of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, making it the oldest and deepest dinosaur fossil ever found within city limits. The vertebra, dated to approximately 67.5 million years ago, belonged to a small herbivorous dinosaur that roamed the tropical swamps and ...
A tiny parasitic worm may hold the key to restoring blue crab populations in the Chesapeake Bay. Despite feeding on crab eggs, the worm Carcinonemertes carcinophila is now being studied as a biological marker that could help scientists track crab reproduction and improve fishery management. With crab numbers at historic lows, this surprising ally may ...
A new study of two-million-year-old tooth enamel has revealed surprising genetic diversity in Paranthropus robustus, a distant upright-walking relative of early humans. Using paleoproteomics—the analysis of ancient proteins—researchers extracted molecular data from fossil teeth found in South Africa’s Swartkrans Cave, offering one of the oldest glimpses into human ancestry ever recovered from the continent. Proteins ...
Elephants aren’t just intelligent; they’re intentional. A new behavioral study reveals that African Savannah elephants use deliberate gestures to express their desires, especially when interacting with attentive humans. This marks the first confirmed evidence of goal-directed gestural communication in non-primate mammals, expanding our understanding of animal cognition and social signaling. Testing Elephant Intentionality Researchers observed ...
Newly analyzed jawbones from 380-million-year-old lungfish are shedding light on the feeding behaviors of our earliest vertebrate ancestors. Discovered in the Gogo Formation of northern Western Australia, these fossils reveal a surprising diversity in skull and jaw structure, offering clues about how early lobe-finned fish adapted to different diets and ecological roles before vertebrates made ...
