How geckos cope with wet feet

Geckos are remarkable little creatures, clinging to almost any dry surface, and Alyssa Stark, from the University of Akron, USA, explains that they appear to be equally happy scampering through tropical rainforest canopies ...

Short heels make elite sprinters super speedy

What is it about elite sprinters that gives them the edge over non-sprinters in the 100m dash? Stephen Piazza from the Pennsylvania State University publishes his discovery, in The Journal of Experimental Biology, that the ...

44-year-old mystery of how fleas jump resolved (w/ Video)

If you thought that we know everything about how the flea jumps, think again. In 1967, Henry Bennet-Clark discovered that fleas store the energy needed to catapult themselves into the air in an elastic pad made of resilin. ...

Scientists discover unreported plant body part

A previously unreported anatomical structure named the 'cantil' has been described in the popular plant model, Arabidopsis thaliana. Scientists from The Pennsylvania State University, U.S., reveal that the cantil forms between ...

Hummingbirds may struggle to go any further uphill

Any animal ascending a mountain experiences a double whammy of impediments: The air gets thinner as it also becomes colder, which is particularly problematic for creatures struggling to keep warm when less oxygen is available. ...

Animals evolved the ability to gallop 472 million years ago

Few human adults gallop; the equine gait tends to be the preserve of little kids mimicking horses or exercise classes. But for camels, lions and giraffes, galloping is a key fixture of their repertoire as they shift up through ...

Baboons 'crouch and sprint' to take standing up in their stride

At some point in our evolution, humans gave up walking on four limbs, yet all of our ape cousins continue sauntering on four, resorting occasionally to two. Peter Aerts from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, is curious ...

Cost of hatchling turtles' dash for freedom

A newly hatched sea turtle's first swim is the most critical of its life. Having run the gauntlet of air and land predators to make it to the sea, the tiny voyager must also evade hungry fish patrolling the beaches in its ...

Alaskan wood frogs stock up on solutes to survive

Outwardly, the tiny wood frog, Rana sylvatica, does not look like your regular arctic inhabitant. Yet despite their tiny stature, these little frogs are actually quite hardy and can tolerate freezing of up to two-thirds of ...

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