Highly conserved DNA reveals turtles are more related to birds and crocodiles
The evolutionary origin of turtles is one of the last unanswered questions in vertebrate evolution. Paleontological and morphological…
Category: Big Questions
Disco clam has rippling mirrored lips
Four years after falling in love with the disco clam – a cute little mollusk known for its underwater light show – Lindsey Dougherty has…
Study reveals opposite patterns of ancient climate change in temperate areas
Korean research team revealed conflicting climate change patterns between the middle latitude areas of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres…
Spiders from 8 families prey on fish
Spiders from five different families prey on small fish in the wild, according to a systematic review published June 18, 2014 in the…
Whale and tuna are equally efficient as swimmers
A large gray whale and a much smaller skipjack tuna each propels itself through water. Which is the more efficient swimmer? It has been…
Forest loss starves fish
Debris from forests that washes into freshwater lakes supplements the diets of microscopic zooplankton and the fish that feed off them –…
Scientists reveal why life got big in the Earth’s early oceans
Why did life forms first begin to get larger and what advantage did this increase in size provide? UCLA biologists working with an…
3.5 billion-year-old microbial mats in sedimentary rock found in Australia
Evidence of 3.5 billion-year-old bacterial ecosystems found in Australia Washington, D.C.— Reconstructing the rise of life during the…
Farside of the moon is like thick crust pizza with craters
55-year old dark side of the moon mystery solved The Man in the Moon appeared when meteoroids struck the Earth-facing side of the moon…
New species of nocturnal primate has a toxic bite
An international team of scientists studying the elusive nocturnal primate the slow loris in the jungles of Borneo have discovered an…