Animals

Bees Trained to Detect Land Mines May Save Lives in Croatia

More than twenty years since Croatia emerged as an independent state after a bloody conflict with Yugoslavia, the relics of war remain: fields of live land mines pose a deadly risk to people living in Croatia. But a local scientist is generating a lot of buzz for developing a novel approach to detecting mines.

May 17, 2013 04:51 PM EDT

Anteater Gives Birth Without Mating, Zoo Officials Puzzled

A female anteater that gave birth despite the absence of a male partner at a zoo in Connecticut has zoo officials puzzled, offering a bizarre situation where likely explanations to the mystery are in short supply.

During spring and fall, mass occurrences of the Asian lady beetle can often be observed.

May 17, 2013 04:38 PM EDT

Asian Ladybug Uses Its Own Biological Weapons to Best Competition

Research on the Asian lady beetle has shown why the species is able to thrive so successfully in every environment it is introduced to: its success relies on a form of insect biological warfare.

May 17, 2013 11:10 AM EDT

Invasion of Crazy Ants Maddening For Southern U.S.

A maddening invasion of "crazy ants" has people in Texas and other states in the South wishing for the old days of fire ant invasions.

Researchers have discovered the H1N1 flu virus in elephant seals off the coast of central California.

May 16, 2013 03:13 PM EDT

Pandemic Swine Flu Reported in Marine Mammals for First Time

Researchers from University of California, Davis are reporting the first case of swine flu (H1N1) found in marine mammals, providing further evidence of the virus' ability to move across species.

May 16, 2013 02:03 PM EDT

'Scissorhands' Ancient Lobster Named After Johnny Depp

A newly-identified, scissor-handed ancestor of ancient lobsters and scorpions has been named after its finder's favorite movie star: Johnny Depp.

A gray whale's head breaks the water surface in the Laguna San Ignacio on Mexico's Baja California peninsula February 8, 2006

May 16, 2013 10:08 AM EDT

First Ever Gray Whale Spotted South of the Equator in Atlantic Ocean

A gray whale spotted in a never-before-seen location -- the southern hemisphere off the coast of Namibia in Walvis Bay -- is astonishing news for marine scientists, who report that the species known to inhabit the North Pacific Ocean had been hunted to extinction in the Atlantic Ocean in the 1700s and not once been recorded swimming south of the equator.

May 16, 2013 01:41 AM EDT

African Clawed Frogs Carry Deadly Amphibian Pathogen

African frogs, originally imported for early 20th century pregnancy tests in laboratories and hospitals, carried a deadly disease to the U.S. and is wiping out amphibians around the world , according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS One,

Oviraptorid skeleton and eggs in the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

May 15, 2013 04:46 PM EDT

New Study Refutes Previous Research on Dinosaur Incubation Habits

New research on the incubation behaviors of birds refutes a prior study that reported bird behavior could be used to determine that some male dinosaurs were tasked with incubating eggs.

Harvester ants store seeds inside the nest, so they can afford not to forage when conditions are poor. The photo shows an underground chamber filled with seeds.

May 15, 2013 04:15 PM EDT

The Most Successful Ant Colonies Forage For Food When Conditions Are Prime, Study Shows

A decades-long study of harvester ants has offered a view into the collective behavior of ant colonies and gives unprecedented examples of the natural selection that occurs within the colonies.

May 16, 2013 10:14 AM EDT

Rising Sea Temperatures Are Affecting Global Fish Catches: A Study

Ocean warming is having a global impact on what’s for dinner, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.

Artist Mauricio Antón's rendering of the newly discovered fossil primates, Rukwapithecus (front, center) and Nsungwepithecus (right).

May 15, 2013 03:03 PM EDT

Split Between Apes and Monkeys Linked by New Fossil Records

Newly discovered fossils in Tanzania may help explain what led to the split between hominoids (large tailless primates, including today's gorillas, chimpanzees and humans) and cercopithecoids, or Old World monkeys, which include today's baboons and macaques, but the announcement, which is based on dental fragments, does not have all experts convinced.