Animals
THE SCIENCE SHELF NEWSLETTER
News about the Science Shelf archive of book reviews, columns, and comments by Fred Bortz
Issue #29, Back from Hiatus edition, February 2009
A mother's life experience can affect the biology of her offspring, according to new animal research in the February 4 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
A new series of mutations have been discovered that allow rats to resist the effects of the popular poison warfarin.
Why do nearly half of North American wolves have black coats while European wolves are overwhelmingly gray or white?
Using compounds preserved in sedimentary rocks more than 635 million years old, researchers have found some of the earliest evidence for the existence of animals.
Scientists have recovered fossils from a 60-million-year-old South American snake whose length and weight might make today's anacondas and reticulated pythons seem a bit cuter and more cuddly.
Two newly described fossil whales--a pregnant female and a male of the same species--reveal how primitive whales gave birth and provide new insights into how whales made the transition from land to sea.
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) nearing the menopause may be more successful in rearing their young.
DNA from an extinct sub-species of tiger has revealed that the ancestors of modern tigers migrated through the heart of China – along what would later become known as "the Silk Road."
The remains of an ancient HIV-like virus have been discovered in the genome of the Madagascan grey mouse lemur [Microcebus murinus] by a team led by Oxford University scientists.
In Arctic Canada, a team of geologists from the University of Rochester has discovered a surprise fossil: a tropical, freshwater, Asian turtle.
Times are tough for wildlife living at the frontier between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Armies are reportedly encamped in a national park and wildlife preserve on the Congolese side, while displaced herders and their cattle have settled in an adjoining Ugandan park.
A new study has found that transplantation of stem cells from the lining of the spinal cord, called ependymal stem cells, reverses paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in laboratory tests.
The best way to survive the ill-effects of climate change and pollution may be to simply sleep through it.
Mice with increased levels of a natural brain chemical don't gain weight when fed a high-fat diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
