mammals
edyong | September 27, 2009This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science. The blog is on holiday until the start of October, when I'll return with fresh material.
It's tempting to think that elephants have their own PR agency. Just last week, their mighty reputation was damaged by the revelation that they are scared away by bees but they have bounced back with a new study that cements their standing among the most intelligent of animals.
Lucy Bates and colleagues from the University of St Andrews have found that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) can tell the…
laelaps | September 26, 2009
There are some new residents at the Bronx Zoo: spotted hyenas! I had never seen a live spotted hyena before, and I was quite surprised to find them in what had previously been the cheetah enclosure near the giraffe house. For more on spotted hyenas, see Sci's excellent post on hyena mating or my short essay on the "predatory intelligence" of hyenas in the online journal Antennae (p. 23-25).
edyong | September 25, 2009This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science. The blog is on holiday until the start of October, when I'll return with fresh material.
It's a myth that elephants are afraid of mice, but new research shows that they're not too keen on bees. Even though they fearlessly stand up to lions, the mere buzzing of bees is enough to send a herd of elephants running off. Armed with this knowledge, African farmers may soon be able to use strategically placed hives or recordings to minimise conflicts with elephants.
Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Fritz Vollrath…
laelaps | September 24, 2009
Scotland did not have much to offer 19-year-old Andrew Geddes Bain. Both his parents had died when he was a child, and even though he was educated his job prospects were few. When his uncle, Lieutenant Colonel William Geddes, left for South Africa in 1816 young Andrew decided to go with him to the British empire's southern frontier.
Once he arrived there, Bain found work where he could. He worked as a saddler, an explorer, an ivory trader, a soldier, and a road-builder, but in 1837 Bain read a book that would inspire him to look a little bit closer at the rugged landscape around him. That…
grrlscientist | September 24, 2009tags: nature, birds, Antarctica, Emperor Penguin, Aptenodytes forsteri, Leopard Seal, Hydrurga leptonyx, David Attenborough, streaming video
Emperor Penguins, Aptenodytes forsteri, return from the seas to feed their young. Dramatic scenes unfold as they hesitate at the edge of the Antarctic sea ice after spotting a Leopard Seal, Hydrurga leptonyx, on the prowl under the Antarctic ice. Narrated by the incomparable David Attenborough.
laelaps | September 23, 2009
A group of small birds on the back of a bison (Bison bison). Photographed at Antelope Island, Utah.
edyong | September 21, 2009This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science. The blog is on holiday until the start of October, when I'll return with fresh material.
The sabre-toothed cat is one of the most famous prehistoric animals and there is no question that it was a formidable predator, capable of bringing down large prey like giant bison, horses, and possibly even mammoths. The two massive canines - the largest teeth of any mammal - are a powerful visual. But while they were clearly powerful weapons, scientists have debated their use for over 150 years.
Now, a new study…
grrlscientist | September 21, 2009tags: nature, mammals, Antarctica, blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, National Geographic, streaming video
Blue whales, Balaenoptera musculus, have complex calls that can be heard for miles. In this National Geographic video, we meet one scientist is on a mission to uncover the meaning of their songs.
laelaps | September 21, 2009
A male pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), photographed at Antelope Island in Utah.
laelaps | September 20, 2009
A view of Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park. Those are bison (Bison bison) in the foreground.
laelaps | September 19, 2009
North American river otters (Lontra canadensis), photographed in the Lamar Valley at Yellowstone National Park.
edyong | September 18, 2009The two-toed sloth is a walking hotel. The animal is so inactive that its fur acts as an ecosystem in its own right, hosting a wide variety of algae and insects. But the sloth has another surprise passenger hitching a ride inside its body, one that has stayed with it for up to 55 million years - a virus.
In the Cretaceous period, the genes of the sloth's ancestor were infiltrated by a "foamy virus", one of a family that still infects humans, chimps and other mammals today. They are examples of retroviruses, which reproduce by converting an RNA genome into a DNA version and inserting that…
laelaps | September 18, 2009
Contrary to their herbivorous habits in the wild, the elephants that appear in the long-running animated show The Simpsons are often carnivorous. In almost every episode featuring an elephant the pachyderm puts another animal in its mouth (i.e. Bart's pet elephant "Stampy") if it does not actually consume it. An exception is the Asian elephant in the episode in which Kwik-E-Mart shopkeeper Apu gets married, "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons."
Fortunately for the wedding guests, the Asian elephant Apu rides in on does not attempt to eat anyone. Instead the elephant is terrified by a mouse it…
gregladen | September 17, 2009The evolutionary history of mammals can be reviewed as the evolutionary history of tooth loss. The early mammals had many teeth, and every now and then in evolutionary time, a tooth is lost wiht subsequent species arriving from that n-1 toothed form having that smaller number of teeth. With ver few exceptions, no mammals have added a tooth during the history of mammals. (Excepting maybe the very very earliest period, but probably not.)
Well, the loss of enamel itself is also an evolutionary trend in mammal history, and recent research published in PLoS Genetic associates genetic changes…
laelaps | September 14, 2009
An American pika (Ochotona princeps), photographed in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.
grrlscientist | September 14, 2009tags: nature, mammals, Antarctica, blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, David Attenborough, streaming video
This amazing video clip from BBC's remarkable multi-part TV program, Blue Planet, shows the awesome size of the Blue Whale, Balaenoptera musculus, the largest creature in the sea and the largest creature that has ever lived. Narrated by the incomparable David Attenborough.
laelaps | September 13, 2009
A warning to visitors about bison, or a request to the bison? Photographed at Antelope Island, Utah.
edyong | September 13, 2009The British Wildlife Centre is one of my favourite places in the country. It's like a small zoo focusing solely on British wildlife and everything in it lives in lovely open enclosures with naturalistic environments (the otters have about three lakes to play around in). It's a fantastic place to visit, especially for people who've most likely only ever seen a badger or a fox as a roadside carcass. Here are some photos from yesterday's trip:
Badger
Buzzard
Eagle owl
Frog (pool frog?)
Harvest mouse (note size of blackberry for comparison)
Otter
Wotta lotta otter
Pine marten (Britain rocks for…
laelaps | September 11, 2009
Carl Buell's restoration of Aetiocetus weltoni. From Demere et al., 2008.
By now many of you have no doubt seen the abysmally bad story on evolution and creationism in yesterday's Telegraph. After referring to the reactions of fundamentalist Christians to the forthcoming Charles Darwin biopic Creation (based upon the book Annie's Box), the anonymous author of the piece presents the "Top 5" arguments for both evolution and creationism. The choices were baffling; it appeared that rather than do any actual research the writer extracted the selections from a bodily orifice that I will refrain…