The spiny mouse is an unassuming rodent, but it’s armed with a very special tail. CT scans show the tail is sheathed in a secret blanket of bony plates. Before…
Category: Animals
Octopuses and squid are masters of RNA editing while leaving DNA intact
Citations S. Alon, et al. The majority of transcripts in the squid nervous system are extensively recoded by A-to-I RNA editing. eLife. January 8, 2015. doi: 10.7554/eLife.05198. N. Liscovitch-Brauer, et…
Large predators push coyotes and bobcats near people and to their demise
When wild animals take refuge from predators by straying near people, the illusion of safety can be deadly. In the wilderness, mid-sized predators like coyotes have learned to fear larger…
The Sonoran Desert toad can alter your mind — it’s not the only animal
The adage “all attention is good attention” may be true for marketers — not so for the Sonoran Desert toad. Last fall, the U.S. National Park Service sent out a…
Why some hammerhead sharks seem to ‘hold their breath’ during dives
Even fish sometimes hold their breath in cold, dark, deep water. Scalloped hammerhead sharks living near Hawaii spend their days basking in warm surface waters. But at night, these fish…
Pregnancy may hamper bats’ ability to ‘see’ in the dark
Pregnancy can do weird things to the body. For some bats, it can hamper their ability to “see” the world around them. Kuhl’s pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus kuhlii) echolocate less frequently…
Swarming locusts can deploy a chemical to avoid being cannibalized
For many locusts, life in a swarm is a picnic. Crowded conditions create a locust-eat-locust world. But it turns out some migrating insects deploy a “don’t-eat-me” pheromone that can deter…
A 2,200-year-old poop time capsule reveals secrets of the Andean condor
For over 2,000 years, Andean condors have been nesting — and pooping — in the same cliffside grotto high in the Andes. This gargantuan pile of guano is now providing…
This marine biologist is on a mission to save endangered rays
The first time Jessica Pate swam beside a manta ray off Florida’s southern coast, the 8-foot-wide fish flipped belly-up and slowed to watch her. “I was kind of obsessed after…
Mouse hair turns gray when certain stem cells get stuck
Hair might go gray when stem cells with wanderlust have their travels interrupted. Stem cells involved in making the pigment that gives hair its color behave much differently than other…
