WEIRD ANIMALS
By Nick Lavars – The reasons for a zebras stripes are far from black and white. Debate has long raged over the reasons for a zebra’s stripes, with scientists spending decades theorizing over the evolutionary causes for the animal’s iconic patterns. A …
The owner’s personality was the most important factor in examining the stress-hormone relationship between pet and owner. By Stephen Johnson – A new study found that dogs and their owners show similar levels of the stress hormone cortisol over time. The dog-owner cortisol …
By James Holloway – Svalbard reindeer are well-adapted to extremely cold conditions. Photographic evidence of reindeer eating seaweed is only the beginning. (Credit: Brage B. Hansen/NTNU). In the face of climate change, reindeer are resorting to eating kelp seaweed, according to …
Michael Irving – Researchers have used molecules from the lamprey’s immune system to help fight brain cancer. (Credit: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (CC BY.SA 2.0)). With a mouth like a whirlpool full of teeth, the lamprey is not something you’d normally …
“You want to be nice to someone who’s going to be important for you.” By Yasmin Tayag – Among the countless shitty things humans have done recently, we’ve revived Nazism, attempted to cover up egregious sexual abuse, and resurrected the threat of nuclear …
By Matt Kennedy – Artist’s interpretation of the newly-named Suskityrannus hazelae. (Credit: Andrey Atuchin). In 1998, a 16 year old boy with a passion for paleontology unearthed a near-complete skeleton of one of Tyrannosaurus rex’s cousins in New Mexico. It was a defining moment …
Insects are ‘the glue in nature’, says Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, underpinning the food and water we rely on. By Damian Carrington Guardian Environment editor @dpcarrington – A Notch-horned Cleg, a type of horsefly. ‘While we humans have doubled our population in the past 40 …
By Loz Blain – A quarter of the world’s species are under threat of extinction. This tarsier appears to think he could be one of them. (Credit: igorot/Depositphotos). Earth stands to lose a massive 25 percent of its biodiversity, warned UNESCO Director-General Audrey …
By Adam Williams – Tij was delivered by boat in roughly 400 pieces and assembled on site. (Credit: Katja Effting). Resembling an oversized egg in a nest, the Tij (or Tide) is a bird observatory in the Netherlands designed by Dutch firm RAU …
By Loz Blain – A recreation of what Simbakubwa Kutokaafrika may have looked like in the wild. (Credit: Mauricio Anton). After sitting in a drawer in a Kenyan museum for more than 40 years, a set of fossilized bones has introduced the world …
