Animal Life news stories

Fossils Reveal Cephalopods May Be 30 Million Years Older Than We Thought
25th March 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

The class of marine animals known as cephalopoda – which today includes squids, octopuses, and cuttlefishes – could have been around on Earth 30 million years earlier than previously thought, according to new research.

Fungi are key to our survival. Are we doing enough to protect them?
21st March 2021 | nationalgeographic.com | Animal Life, Earth, Humans

For almost a decade, one lone mushroom was classified as an endangered species, and scientists say more could be in trouble.

Image from Sasata (Wiki Commons)

Meet the swirlon, a new kind of matter that bends the laws of physics
19th March 2021 | livescience.com | Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Fish school, insects swarm and birds fly in murmurations. Now, new research finds that on the most basic level, this kind of group behavior forms a new kind of active matter, called a swirlonic state.

Arctic was once lush and green, could be again, new research shows
19th March 2021 | eurekalert.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

As the Arctic warms much faster than everywhere else on the planet in response to climate change, the findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may not only be a glimpse of the past but a snapshot of our potential future.

‘Rarest of the rare’ dinosaur fossil found brooding on its eggs
16th March 2021 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

About 70 million years ago, an ostrich-like dinosaur brooding atop a nest of blue-green eggs met its doom, perishing with its nearly-hatched babies in what is now southern China.

From cats to cows to crocodiles, ancient Egyptians worshipped many animal gods
14th March 2021 | nationalgeographic.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Sobek, crocodile-headed god of the Nile; Sekhmet, leonine goddess of war; Anubis, jackal god of the underworld; and Hathor, mother goddess with a cow’s horns: The ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods was filled with divine animals.

Research shows we’re surprisingly similar to Earth’s first animals
10th March 2021 | eurekalert.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

The earliest multicellular organisms may have lacked heads, legs, or arms, but pieces of them remain inside of us today, new research shows.

World’s oldest ‘pet cemetery’ discovered in ancient Egypt
9th March 2021 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered the oldest pet cemetery on record — a nearly 2,000-year-old burial ground filled with well-loved animals, including the remains of cats and monkeys still wearing collars stringed with shell, glass and stone beads, a new study finds.

Could lab-grown meat help tackle climate change?
9th March 2021 | bbc.co.uk | Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Last year, Singapore became the first country to allow the sale of lab-grown meat. BBC Minute takes a look at what lab-grown meat is and whether it could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the future.

Octopuses Not Only Feel Pain Physically, But Emotionally Too, First Study Finds
7th March 2021 | sciencealert.com | Animal Life, Humans

An important new study suggests octopuses are likely to feel and respond to pain in a similar way to mammals – the first strong evidence for this capacity in any invertebrate.

New study suggests humans evolved to run on less water than our closest primate relatives
7th March 2021 phys.org | Animal Life, Humans

When you think about what separates humans from chimpanzees and other apes, you might think of our big brains or the fact that we get around on two legs rather than four. But we have another distinguishing feature: water efficiency.

Primate ancestor of all humans likely roamed with the dinosaurs
7th March 2021 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Scientists have identified the earliest primate fossils: tiny ancient teeth from a rat-size creature that suggest our ancient ancestors once lived alongside the dinosaurs.

Cuttlefish show self-control, pass ‘marshmallow test’
4th March 2021 | livescience.com | Animal Life

Cephalopods were willing to forgo meals when they knew that waiting meant they would be rewarded with more delicious treats, according to a new study. That makes them the first known invertebrates to show the ability to exert self-control.

Answer to fossil record puzzle may lie with teenage T rexes, study finds
27th February 2021 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Animal Life

Teenage T rexes and other carnivorous dinosaurs the size of lions or bears may have crowded out smaller species, explaining why there are so few of them preserved in the fossil record, research suggests.

Researchers solve puzzle of water-to-land transition of vertebrates
27th February 2021 phys.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

The water-to-land transition is a leap in the history of vertebrate evolution and one of the most important scientific issues in vertebrate evolution. Previous studies have shown that vertebrate landing occurred in bony fishes.

A 4.4 million-year-old skeleton could reveal how early humans began to walk upright
25th February 2021 phys.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Thomas Cody Prang, assistant professor of anthropology, and colleagues examined the skeletal remains of Ardipithecus ramidus (“Ardi”), dated to 4.4 million years old and found in Ethiopia. One of Ardi’s hands was exceptionally well-preserved.

News stories covering Animal Science, bacterial life, DNA.