AnimalsReferenceRats practice running through mazes, cats envision future hunts in their heads—scientists are learning more than ever before about animal dreamers. ByBrian HandwerkPublished November 2, 2022• 7 min readIf you’ve ever watched a dog nap, you’ve probably wondered if animals dream.It’s a complicated question. We still don’t know exactly why humans dream, or why dreams might…
Artist's reconstruction of Gangtoucunia aspera as it would have appeared in life on the Cambrian seafloor, circa 514 million years ago. The individual in the foreground has part of the skeleton removed to show the soft polyp inside the skeleton. Reconstruction by Xiaodong Wang. Credit: Reconstruction by Xiaodong Wang. An exceptionally well-preserved collection of fossils…
Photographer Will Burrard-Lucas focuses on animals that stop by for a drink. Published November 1, 2022 09:00AM EDT It all started with a small water hole. Wildlife photographer and author Will Burrard-Lucas went to a small water hole in the Shompole Conservancy in the Southern Rift Valley in Kenya. He photographed all sorts of nocturnal…
Aye-ayes use their long middle finger to pick their noses, a first for this lemur species. But scientists aren’t sure why these animals picked up the habitAn aye-aye nose-picking. Credit: Anne-Claire Fabre A long-fingered lemur has been caught on camera picking its nose—and eating the slimy goods. The culprit was Kali, an aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)…
Asia-Pacific could face higher prices of grains and meat after Russia suspended a U.N.-brokered deal that had allowed safe grain shipments out of the Black Sea.Over the weekend, the Russian foreign ministry said it "can no longer guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the Black Sea Grain Initiative and will suspend…
The young Husky was part of a group of 18 dogs and puppies that had been dumped in the Doris Creek area of Flathead National Forest in Montana Published on October 31, 2022 02:01 PM A Montana woman was cited for animal cruelty after she fatally shot and skinned an abandoned husky thinking it was…
Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. I had mistakenly assumed last week would be the last of the Halloween updates, forgetting that this week’s Monday is the very day itself. So naturally we have a bunch of…
One of the most influential texts of the 19th century, "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" is widely regarded as one of the first true science fiction novels. The book's Gothic author, Mary Shelley, was keen to the cutting edge science of her time, inspired in part by misinterpretation of galvanism, which is electricity produced by…
In recent years, researchers have made measurable progress, using animal models, to promote tissue regeneration in spinal cord injuries (SCI) through implanted neural stem cells or grafts. Other efforts have shown that intensive physical rehabilitation can improve function after SCI by promoting greater or new roles for undamaged or spared cells and neural circuits. In…
Australia holds an unenviable conservation status: it's the fourth-worst country in the world for species extinctions and is in the top three for critically endangered animals. This week's Federal Budget included a $224 million allocation to help save threatened species - news that coincides with some concerning findings of a new paper authored by University…
