Are invasives bad? Not always, researchers say

In 1988, a mysterious invader washed upon the New Jersey shore. The Asian shore crab likely arrived in ballast from commercial ships, and it found its new home to be quite agreeable. More than two decades later, the crab, ...

How cobras form hood flares

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cobras, and several other groups of unrelated snakes, form a menacing hood flare by expanding the sides of their necks as part of a defensive display. Now scientists in the US have identified the groups of ...

Ribs evolved for movement first, then co-opted for breathing

When early tetrapods transitioned from water to land the way they breathed air underwent an evolutionary revolution. Fish use muscles in their head to pump water over their gills. The first land animals utilized a similar ...

Researchers discover real reason why turtles have shells

It is common knowledge that the modern turtle shell is largely used for protection. No other living vertebrate has so drastically altered its body to form such an impenetrable protective structure as the turtle. However, ...

Ancient European bear had unusually large penis bone

(Phys.org) —Researchers working at Spain's Batallones-3 dig site in the area of Cerro de los Batallones have unearthed five baculum (os penis) that once belonged to five now extinct examples of a species of bear classified ...

Over 120,000-year-old bone tumor in Neandertal specimen found

The first-known definitive case of a benign bone tumor has been discovered in the rib of a young Neandertal who lived about 120,000 years ago in what is now present-day Croatia. The bone fragment, which comes from the famous ...

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