My picks from ScienceDaily

Paleontologists Study A Remarkably Well-preserved Baby Siberian Mammoth:

University of Michigan paleontologist Daniel Fisher just returned from Siberia where he spent a week as part of a six-member international team that examined the frozen, nearly intact remains of a 4-month-old female woolly mammoth.

Steroids, Not Songs, Spur Growth Of Brain Regions In Sparrows:

Neuroscientists are attempting to understand if structural changes in the brain are related to sensory experience or the performance of learned behavior, and now University of Washington researchers have found evidence that one species of songbird apparently has something in common with a few baseball sluggers. Both rely on steroids, birds to increase the size of song production areas of their brain and some players, apparently, to knock a fastball out of the park.

Feeding Habits Of Flying Reptiles Uncovered:

Scientists at the University of Sheffield, collaborating with colleagues at the Universities of Portsmouth and Reading, have taken a step back in time and provided a new insight into the lifestyle of a prehistoric flying reptile.

High-flying Honkers Have Superhuman Power:

They may seem deceptively innocuous mixed in with other waterfowl, but bar-headed geese can do with ease what most elite high altitude athletes can't. Now a UBC zoologist is learning how. Native to South and Central Asia, bar-headed geese, named for the dark stripes on the backs of their heads, are often bred in captivity as domestic garden birds. In the wild, they migrate annually between India and the Tibetan plateau in China, flying over the world's highest mountains on their way.

Mothers Invest More In Reproduction When Their Mates Are Attractive:

Animals in nature can behave according to basic rules of economics, such as investing in agreement with their expected payoff. A French team of behavioural ecologists demonstrated that, in the Peafowl, females paired with attractive males invested more resources in their eggs than females paired with unattractive males. They laid larger eggs and deposited more testosterone in egg yolk, potentially offering a better prospective to their offspring.

Bumblebees Make Bee Line For Gardens, National Bumblebee Nest Survey Finds:

Britain's gardens are vital habitats for nesting bumblebees, new research has found. The results come from the National Bumblebee Nest Survey, which are published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, and the findings will help conservationists understand -- and hopefully address -- the factors responsible for declining bumblebee populations.

Successful Artificial Reproduction Of The European Sea Sturgeon:

Despite its status as an endangered species in France since 1982 and in Europe since 1998, the last population of the European sea sturgeon has continued to decline. Today, only a few thousand individuals remain, all native to the Gironde River. In Bordeaux, researchers were rushing to build up stocks of parent fish and set up artificial reproduction methods in an attempt to produce sturgeon fry. This objective was met on June 25, 2007 at the Cemagref fish station in St-Seurin-sur-l'Isle, in the Gironde area.

Nicotine Rush Hinges On Sugar In Neurons:

When nicotine binds to a neuron, how does the cell know to send the signal that announces a smoker's high? As with other questions involving good sensations, the answer appears to be sugar.

Great Bustards Breed In UK For First Time In 175 Years:

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has welcomed news of the first breeding great bustards in Great Britain for 175 years.

Limpets Reveal Possible Fate Of Cold-blooded Antarctic Animals:

A limpet no bigger than a coin could reveal the possible fate of cold-blooded Antarctic marine animals according to new research published in The Journal of Experimental Biology.

Eight Endangered Species Decisions Under Review:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced plans to review and take further action, as appropriate, for eight decisions made under the Endangered Species Act, after questions were raised about the integrity of the scientific information used and whether the decisions made were consistent with appropriate legal standards.