How flick knife thumbs help Japan's rare fighting frogs
Combat-ready spikes which shoot from fingers sounds like the weaponry of a comic book hero, but a Japanese scientist has found exactly this in a rare breed of frog. The discovery, which is published in...
View ArticleNew materials of caturoid fish discovered in China
In a newly published articles, researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology describe new materials of caturoid fish—Gymnoichthys inopinatus, from the Middle Triassic...
View ArticleSea animal has grow-again penis
Scientists reported Wednesday on the bizarre sex life of a sea slug that discards its penis after copulation. Then grows a new one.
View ArticleShark found to have bioluminescence on both dorsal spine and belly
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers studying velvet belly lantern sharks has discovered that the species has bioluminescent cells on both its belly and near its dorsal spines. The team describes their...
View ArticleSpinal tap: Using cactus spines to isolate DNA
Isolation of DNA from some organisms is a routine procedure. For example, you can buy a kit at your local pharmacy or grocery store that allows you to swab the inside of your cheek and send the sample...
View ArticleA new thalattosaur found from the Upper Triassic of Guanling, Guizhou, China
Thalattosaurs, literally meaning "ocean lizard", are a group of prehistoric marine reptiles living during the Triassic Period in North America and Eurasia. They bore a superficial resemblance to...
View ArticleAustralopithecus sediba hominin: New study reveals how human ancestor walked,...
A team of scientists has pieced together how the hominid Australopithecus sediba (Au. sediba) walked, chewed, and moved nearly two million years ago. Their research, which appears in six papers in the...
View ArticleWhere's Waldo? A new alien-like species discovered off California
After nearly 25 years of searching, three scientists have finally found Waldo. No, not the loveable bespectacled character in children's picture books, but rather an unusual clam discovered off the...
View ArticleResearchers remove oil from water using copper cones inspired by cactus...
(Phys.org) —A team of researchers working at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, has developed a new way to remove oil from water—using a design inspired by nature. In their paper published in...
View ArticleNew evidence suggests earliest trilobites were able to partially roll up...
(Phys.org) —A trio of researchers—two from Cambridge University and one from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has found evidence that suggests that the earliest trilobites were able to roll up their...
View ArticleStation spinal ultrasounds seeking why astronauts grow taller in space
(Phys.org)—Did you ever wish you could be just a teensy bit taller? Well, if you spend a few months in space, you could get your wish—temporarily. It is a commonly known fact that astronauts living...
View ArticleSharksucker fish's strange disc explained
There's an old legend about a fish that attaches itself to ships and has powers to slow them down. The powers may be mythical but the fish is real.
View ArticleScientists develop mouse model that can advance research on iPS cells to the...
VIB scientists associated to the UGent have developed a mouse model that can advance the research on iPS cells to the next step.
View ArticleA new species of marine fish from 408 million years ago discovered in Teruel
Researchers from the University of Valencia and the Natural History Museum of Berlin have studied the fossilised remains of scales and bones found in Teruel and the south of Zaragoza, ascertaining that...
View ArticleNew species of Hero Shrew found in equatorial Africa
Scientists at Chicago's Field Museum and international collaborators have described a new species of Hero Shrew – the mammal with the most bizarre lower spine on Earth. The interlocking vertebrae of...
View ArticleCommon back problems may be caused by evolution of human locomotion
A common spinal disease could be the result of some people's vertebrae, the bones that make up the spine, sharing similarities in shape to a non-human primate. The research, published in the open...
View ArticleThe molecules that tell you how to grow a backbone
Growing the right number of vertebrae in the right places is an important job – and scientists have found the molecules that act like 'theatre directors' for vertebrae genes in mice: telling them how...
View ArticleRelationship found between predation and the shape of prey fish body and spines
(Phys.org)—A trio of researchers with the University of California's Department of Evolution and Ecology has found a predictable relationship between the size of predator fish mouths and the shape and...
View ArticleSuperelastic adaptive alloy could improve the success rate of childhood...
Scoliosis is typically defined as the curvature of the spine, which in severe cases can lead to severe physical deformity in addition to pulmonary and cardiac problems. Early-onset scoliosis refers to...
View ArticleInspired by a desert beetle, cactus and pitcher plant, researchers design a...
Organisms such as cacti and desert beetles can survive in arid environments because they've evolved mechanisms to collect water from thin air. The Namib desert beetle, for example, collects water...
View ArticleNanopillars on drone fly larvae allow them to avoid bacterial contamination
The immature stage of the drone fly (Eristalis tenax) is known as a "rat-tailed maggot" because it resembles a hairless baby rodent with a "tail" that is actually used as a breathing tube. Rat-tailed...
View ArticleTwo new highly adorned spiky ant species discovered in New Guinea
The distinctive dorsal spines found on two new species of highly adorned Pheidole ants may help to support the ants' massive heads, according to a study published July 27, 2016 in the open-access...
View ArticleNew study identifies ancient shark ancestors
New research based on x-ray imaging provides the strongest evidence to date that sharks arose from a group of bony fishes called acanthodians. Analyzing an extraordinarily well-preserved fossil of an...
View ArticleSea urchin spines could fix bones
More than 2 million procedures every year take place around the world to heal bone fractures and defects from trauma or disease, making bone the second most commonly transplanted tissue after blood. To...
View ArticleBrain-imaging system uses 'multi-pupil' prism arrays
A specialized type of adaptive-optics technology that has been demonstrated by taking high-resolution time-lapse images of functioning brain cells might be used to better understand how the brain works.
View ArticleScientists ID tiny prehistoric sea worm with 50 head spines
Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a bizarre creature with a Venus flytrap-like head swam the seas.
View Article
