Ten million years ago, a green and black snake lay coiled in the Spanish undergrowth. Once, paleontologists would have been limited to the knowledge they could glean from its colorless fossil remains, but now they know what ...
Archaeology
Mar 31, 2016
0
104
The face of a chimpanzee is decidedly different from that of a human, despite the fact that the apes are our nearest relative in the primate tree. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have begun to ...
Biotechnology
Sep 10, 2015
31
444
Some cephalopods are masters of display: Not only can they adapt their skin colour to their immediate environment, thereby merging with the background, they can also produce propagating colour waves along their body. These ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 4, 2014
0
0
The popular idea that Northern Europeans developed light skin to absorb more UV light so they could make more vitamin D – vital for healthy bones and immune function – is questioned by UC San Francisco researchers in ...
Evolution
Jun 30, 2014
17
0
One of the only well preserved dinosaur skin samples ever found is being tested at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron to determine skin colour and to explain why the fossilized specimen remained intact after 70-million ...
Archaeology
Apr 29, 2013
3
0
Red coloration—historically seen as costly in vertebrates—historically seen as costly in vertebrates—might represent some physiological benefit after all, according to research published in the journal Physiological ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 28, 2013
6
0
Squid's colorful, changeable skin enables the animal—and their close relatives, cuttlefish and octopus—to display extraordinary camouflage, the speed and diversity of which is unmatched in the animal kingdom.
Plants & Animals
Aug 27, 2012
1
0
The brilliant colors of birds have inspired poets and nature lovers, but researchers at Yale University and the University of Cambridge say these existing hues represent only a fraction of what birds are capable of seeing.
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2011
3
3
A rare genetic disease called dyskeratosis congenita, caused by the rapid shortening of telomeres (protective caps on the ends of chromosomes), can be mimicked through the study of undifferentiated induced pluripotent stem ...
Biotechnology
May 23, 2011
0
0
People who remain pale and never tan can blame their distant ancestors for choosing to live in the northern reaches of the globe and those who easily achieve a deep tan can thank their ancestors for living in the subtropical ...
Other
Jun 21, 2010
0
0
