Evangeline Rose, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Kevin Omland, University of Maryland, Baltimore County e Thomas Mathew, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
A new statistical test lets researchers search for similarities between groups. Could this help keep new important findings out of the file drawer?
Hormone signals help ready worker mole-rats to treat pups as their own.
belizar/Shutterstock.com
Worker naked mole-rats take care of their colony’s young even though they aren’t the pups’ actual parents. New research suggests the queen gets them ready via hormones in her poop.
Cells that transmit nerve impulses in the part of elephants’ brains responsible for functions such as learning and memory are structured differently from those of any other mammal.
You can’t resist the yawn.
Chayanin Wongpracha/Shutterstock.com
Everybody does it, but why? Scientists aren’t really sure if exhaustion, stress or some other social factor is at the root of yawning – and how it can be so contagious.
Twitter recently blew up with posts wondering about the feline fascination with taped squares on the ground. An animal behavior expert explains it’s not magic that draws Fluffy to the #CatSquare.
For a long time it was not believed that animals were even capable of feeling pain, let alone complex emotions. We now know that is far from the truth.
Bonobo Jasongo at Leipzig Zoo has a hunch about what you’re thinking.
MPI-EVA
Realizing that others’ minds hold different thoughts, feelings and knowledge than your own was thought to be something only people could do. But evidence is accumulating that apes, too, have ‘theory of mind.’
Older matriarchs lead elephant society. But they’re also the primary targets of ivory poachers. When these socially critical individuals are killed, what happens to the rest of the group?
Urban noise pushes birds to sing in high pitch and ship sound deafens whales and dolphins.
John Haslam, Eric Bégin, IK's World Trip, Green Fire Productions, flickker photos, Jay Ebberly / Flickr
Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles