Animal science
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Scientists have had a career-making moment, capturing on film a dolphin with such a rare skin condition that only five other recorded examples exist. The dramatic black-and-white look, or piebaldism, has never been seen on a dolphin in Australian waters.
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It’s a question we’ve all wondered at some point: why do insects spend their evenings swarming around artificial lights? Scientists have now come up with an answer using high-speed cameras and motion capture tech to map out their flight paths in 3D.
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It’s easy to forget that most animals don’t see the world the way humans do. In fact, many perceive colors that are invisible to us. But now, for the first time, scientists have found a way to capture footage as seen by animals, and it's mesmerizing.
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Scientists have long puzzled over why some dinosaurs had feathers and wings long before they evolved the ability of flight. Experiments with a robot dinosaur may now have revealed the answer – they used them for hunting.
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Pseudoscorpions have been seen hitching a ride on a true scorpion, and it’s the first time this interspecific rideshare has been observed. While they have eight legs of their own, these tiny insects prefer to sit back and relax on their road trips.
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Genetic and isotopic analyses have pieced together a remarkable narrative of a 20-year-old female woolly mammoth, detailing her health, status, travels and ultimate ending in interior Alaska – even though her story is now more than 14,000 years old.
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The sex life of a tiny Australian marsupial known as an antechinus is already pretty bizarre. But now its mating season has gotten even stranger – and darker – thanks to the introduction of cannibalism, as observed by field researchers.
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A house made of mucus may not sound like a desirable abode, yet researchers have found that the crafty animal creating such an unappealing structure may help engineers design cheaper and more efficient pumps for industrial uses like water filtration.
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With rapidly advancing techniques to assess fossils, we've never been in a better position to piece together Earth's early days. While there are still plenty of mysteries dating back millions of years, in 2023 we solved a few – and discovered even more.
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With 2023 drawing to a close, it's once again time to look at the significant, intriguing, and sometimes just plain daft science stories of the year. So, let's dive in and see what the science types have been up to.
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From where “love” is felt in the body, to the scientific value of giant piles of bird poop, and talking to whales as practice for understanding aliens, here are the top 10 weirdest science stories of 2023.
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Scientists have discovered that the giant panda, long considered a bit of a loner, has a surprisingly active social life, communicating with friends and family in a way that's akin to sharing status updates on Facebook.
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