What if there were a way that didn’t involve CRISPR to give your offspring a natural talent for athletics? Well that’s totally possible as it turns out, because scientists just demonstrated it in mice, and it didn’t even involve so-called “good genes”. It involved a modern and exciting field of genetic biology called epigenetics: a […]
Free Willy: When Hollywood’s most famous orca was rescued from captivity he vanished into the ocean – But what happened next?
Keiko lived two lives: one on the silver screen and one off it. Both alerted the world to animal-welfare issues a dolphinaria, but it is not clear which of his two lives was the more incredible. Rewind to 1979, when a two-year-old orca was captured off Iceland and ended up in a dolphinarium in Mexico […]
Crows Never Forget the Faces They Don’t Like, Study Shows
A person who angers a crow might be remembered for years. These intelligent black birds can spot a face once, recall it perfectly, and even warn others about it. They do not forgive easily, and they do not forget. Scientists have long known that corvids — the family that includes crows, ravens, and magpies — […]
Baby giant tortoises thrive in Seychelles after first successful artificial incubation
The slow-motion pitter-patter of tiny giant tortoise feet has been worryingly rare in recent years, but that looks set to change thanks to the first successful hatching of the species with artificial incubation. One week after the intervention, the 13 babies are building up their strength on a diet of banana slices and leafy greens […]
Republicans try to weaken 50-year-old law protecting whales, seals and polar bears
BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine (AP) — Republican lawmakers are targeting one of the U.S.’s longest standing pieces of environmental legislation, credited with helping save rare whales from extinction. Conservative leaders feel they now have the political will to remove key pieces of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, enacted in 1972 to protect whales, seals, polar bears […]
A Plant-Eating Croc? Newly Identified Species Demonstrates Crocodilian Versatility
Measuring no more than 2 feet long from nose to tail, a newly-described crocodilian nicknamed “Elton” likely lived its entire life on land where it lounged in the Cretaceous Montana sunshine, eating plants and insects. Elton was about the size of a big lizard, according to Montana State University professor of paleontology David Varricchio, whose […]
Many people go their whole lives without seeing a platypus in the wild. We just saw four in one night
Hunting platypuses takes patience. On Thursday afternoon, I headed into the Royal national park, south of Sydney, with researchers who had reintroduced a small population of the elusive monotremes two years ago. There was a big net and torches – and our dinner. It could be a long wait. The platypus was thought to be […]
It squirts toxic blood from its eyes, has armoured spiky skin and can self-inflate to twice its size. Is this one of the weirdest animals on the planet?
You might think the world’s most powerful lizard is the Komodo dragon – the largest and heaviest lizard in the world, with a venomous bite to boot. But power isn’t always about size – and the world’s weirdest lizard has special powers that allows it to wield superiority over potential predators. Meet the North American […]