Mammals are a vertebrate class (Mammalia) characterized by endothermy, hair or fur, and the presence of mammary glands that produce milk to nourish offspring. They possess a neocortex, three middle ear ossicles, and a single-boned lower jaw articulating with the squamosal bone. Most exhibit viviparity with complex placentation (except monotremes, which are oviparous) and show determinate growth with advanced parental care and social behaviors. Mammalian physiology includes high metabolic rates, a four-chambered heart, and differentiated dentition, supporting ecological diversification into terrestrial, aerial, and aquatic niches across nearly all biomes.
Tsetse flies transmit some of Africa's most persistent parasitic diseases. They have affected human health, livestock production and rural development for generations, across a region spanning millions of square kilometers ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 19, 2026
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19
New research reveals that microbial clocks—forensic tools that track the succession and development of bacteria and fungi involved in decomposition after death—are highly accurate for estimating time since death, or postmortem ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 19, 2026
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10
Cell-communication molecules called kinases play a key role in the growth and spread of many cancers. But exactly which kinases are active in a particular cancer is not always clear—there are 1.8 million sites on human proteins ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 19, 2026
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8
Scientists had previously observed that some species of shrews undergo a form of biological plasticity in which their bodies, skulls, brains and some organs shrink in the winter, then regrow in the spring. Now, a new study ...
Many animals obtain information about others from scent marks left in the environment, including urine. Because these marks remain after the sender has left, they allow animals to communicate across space and time. But odor ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 19, 2026
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32
It's a cold winter afternoon, and you've just brought the laundry in. Suddenly, you pause. Are these clothes a bit damp?
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 19, 2026
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7
Adoptions are on hold for thousands of dogs and cats in Texas, potentially putting the animals at risk of being euthanized, because of efforts to stop the spread of the New World screwworm, an insect that has crossed the ...
Veterinary medicine
Aug 19, 2026
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4
Many people recognize that gender—how a person identifies, presents themselves and is perceived—has nuances. Some people identify and present as women, others as men, and still others as nonbinary.
Other
Aug 18, 2026
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30
Recent advances in our understanding of human evolution challenge the way we currently name and classify our ancestors, according to new research from Monash University. The study, published in the American Journal of Biological ...
Evolution
Aug 18, 2026
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528
A benign but invasive canine oral cancer is often mistaken for a similar malignant one, leading to misdiagnoses in close to a third of cases. But a new diagnostic tool can now distinguish between the two, according to a new ...
Veterinary medicine
Aug 18, 2026
0
9
