The evolutionary history of the mock viper, a mildly venomous, widely distributed Asian snake that mimics highly venomous vipers for self-defense, has been solved. The mock viper represents a completely unique branch in the ...
Humans have long been fascinated by bird song and the cacophony of other avian sounds—from coos and honks to quacks and peeps. But little is known about how the unique vocal organ of birds—the syrinx—varies from species to ...
Paleontologists at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have discovered that some feathered dinosaurs had scaly skin like reptiles today, thus shedding new light on the evolutionary transition from scales to feathers.
Amphibians—like frogs and salamanders—are the most imperiled group of animal species in the world; infectious diseases are among the greatest threats to their existence. After a decade of research, a scientific task force ...
An SMU-led research team has found that ancient rocks and fossils from long-extinct marine reptiles in Angola clearly show a key part of Earth's past—the splitting of South America and Africa and the subsequent formation ...
An international team of scientists including two neurobiologists from the University of Alberta is weighing in on the latest controversy over the brain power of Tyrannosaurus rex.
The fossilized remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two meters long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK. Experts have identified the bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur, ...
Media reports about the biodiversity crisis and what researchers have argued qualifies as a mass extinction event tend to focus on the big ecological effects. Melting ice sheets, severe weather events, droughts, habitat loss ...
The earliest dinosaurs had rapid growth rates, but so did many of the other animals living alongside them, according to a study published in PLOS ONE by Kristina Curry Rogers of Macalester College, Minnesota and colleagues.
A mysterious parasite from Asia is infecting snakes over most of Florida, and researchers believe it was likely brought here by invasive Burmese pythons.
