http://discovermagazine.com/rss/topic-feeds/living-worldDinosaurs, Evolution, Genetics, New Species, Primates, Strange Animals, and more.http://backend.userland.com/rssThu, 16 May 2013 21:30:00 GMThttp://discovermagazine.com/2013/june/07-carp-use-internal-compasses-to-detect-magnetic-fieldThe fish detect magnetic fields and use them to orient themselves along a North-South axis.Thu, 16 May 2013 21:30:00 GMThttp://discovermagazine.com/2013/june/07-carp-use-internal-compasses-to-detect-magnetic-fieldhttp://discovermagazine.com/~/media/29543129B05B44409C146A9404A8FD47.jpg?mw=500http://discovermagazine.com/~/media/29543129B05B44409C146A9404A8FD47.jpg?mw=500http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=1253 Watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis is enough to evoke wonder even from the most world-weary of souls. But rarely do we get to see behind the scenes of the pupa's transformation. Current methods rely on dissection of the chrysalis, or at best, staining the critter (thereby killing it) and using X-rays to look inside. Now scientists have worked out how to use a CT scanner, used in medical settings for high-powered X-rays, to look inside a living chrysalis. And they've produced tWed, 15 May 2013 18:38:14 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=1253http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/chrysalis.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/chrysalis.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/?p=3566 One way to understand how the ecosystem of the Antarctic originated is to look at its very base: tiny organisms called dinoflagellates, the little creatures that attract bigger creatures, and thus in effect support all of life in the ocean. Dinoflagellates produce hard cysts that fossilize well, and researcher Sander Houben and his team recently published findings in Science indicating that, once Antarctic ice began to spread over what was formerly a lushly forested, warm sub-tropical continenMon, 13 May 2013 17:24:03 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/?p=3566http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/files/2013/05/Antarctic-Summer-1024x768.pnghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/files/2013/05/Antarctic-Summer-1024x768.pnghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=1199 To an arachnophobe they may seem universally creepy, but spiders can actually be nice. One strange species of spider, Anelosimus studiosus, consists of individuals of two distinct personalities: docile and aggressive. And new research finds that, in this species at least, nice guys finish last. A. studiosus is found in both North and South America, where it builds big communal webs housing approximately 40 female spiders. Other spider species are similarly social, but A. studiosus is the Mon, 13 May 2013 17:06:08 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=1199http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/spider-close-up.jpeghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/spider-close-up.jpeghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=1099 This might look like a mascara brush or some tentacle-clad sea cucumber, but this is actually an image of a tongue. As you may have guessed, this is no ordinary tongue. Researchers call it a "hemodynamic nectar mop," and it belongs to a particular species of nectar-feeding bat called Glossophaga soricina. These bats feed on the nectar of flowers, hovering in front of the blooms and lapping up the sweet liquid inside. Scientists had long assumed the hairlike structures on bats' tongues were Mon, 06 May 2013 19:03:38 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=1099http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/bat-tongue.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/bat-tongue.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=1059 The gender of a baby painted turtle is determined by the temperature of the soil in which its egg is incubated. Warmer temperatures produce female turtles and cooler temperatures make males. Scientists now say that as the climate warms, the species is not likely to survive. Scientists at Iowa State University studied the nesting behavior of the painted turtle (Chrysemys picta), the most abundant and widespread species of native turtle in North America. They wanted to see if a mother turtle Fri, 03 May 2013 19:04:32 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=1059http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/painted-turtle.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/painted-turtle.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=994 You know that pesky soap holder whose suction cup never stays attached to the shower wall? Scientists may now have a solution: mimic the clingfish. These fish live in the intertidal zone---the area at the ocean's edge where waves are constantly crashing against algae-covered rocks. Despite strong currents and even stronger waves, clingfish survive here by using the mechanism that earned them their name: they cling to the rocks with an adhesive disc on their abdomens that is unhindered by Wed, 01 May 2013 19:04:56 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=994http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/northern-clingfish.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/northern-clingfish.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=993 Just two years after colonists established the first permanent English settlement in the Americas at Jamestown, disaster struck. During the winter of 1609-1610, known as the “starving time,” about 80 percent of the colonists died. Accounts written at the time indicate that cannibalism was one way the survivors held on. Now, examination of remains of one young woman from the period provide the first physical evidence to confirm that some colonists ate the flesh of their deceased brethren. Wed, 01 May 2013 15:31:27 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=993http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/forehead1.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/05/forehead1.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=984 Despite being closely related, hovering hummingbirds and gliding swifts evolved markedly different wing shapes and flight characteristics, ruffling the feathers of scientists trying to understand when the birds’ lineages diverged. However a newly identified fossil of the birds’ common ancestor is helping paleontologists piece together the shared past of swifts and hummingbirds. The fossil — that of Eocypselus rowei — is notable particularly for the preservation of its feathers, making recWed, 01 May 2013 14:19:44 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=984http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/E.-rowei-1024x999.jpeghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/E.-rowei-1024x999.jpeghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=943Much of the food that fills your dinner plate can only be produced with the help of a highly managed insect species: the western honey bee. Many farmers actually rent commercial colonies to unleash on their fields when the crops are in bloom. Such pollination services rake in $14 billion a year in the United States. But honey bee populations have plummeted in the last half decade as worker bees have mysteriously flown off and never returned to the hives---a phenomenon now called Colony CollapTue, 30 Apr 2013 19:23:22 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=943http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/honey-comb-bees-289x300.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/honey-comb-bees-289x300.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/?p=3402It’s been a big month for developments in transparency. First: the Antarctic icefish, whose native habitat is 3,200 feet deep in the waters off the coast of Antarctica. Earlier this month, Tokyo Sea Life Park debuted its display of the only captive icefish in the world, prompting a flurry of news pieces about the fishes' mysterious clear blood. The aquarium boasts they now have a mating pair of icefish, which could enable studies on their unique cardiovascular system in a controlled environmFri, 26 Apr 2013 18:09:54 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/?p=3402http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/files/2013/04/Ocellated-Icefish.pnghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/files/2013/04/Ocellated-Icefish.pnghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=880 You’ve got to give researchers a hand — or at least a forelimb — for discovering that a gradual transition in femur size and position was apparently the main factor behind changes in dinosaur evolution that, over millions of years, led to the emergence of birds. In a study published today in Nature, a team from the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College used computer modeling to challenge the widely-accepted theory that changes in tail length and weight were the primary factor inWed, 24 Apr 2013 17:00:03 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=880http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/microraptor.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/microraptor.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=658 In the past few years, snowpack in the Rocky Mountains has seen both extreme highs and extreme lows. And this volatility presents a problem for more than just skiers hoping to maximize their season on the slopes. Animals like snowshoe hares change their fur color with the seasons to blend in with their surroundings---snow white in the winter and woodland brown in the warmer months. But if a hare is brown when there's snow on the ground or white when there's not, it makes him much more vulTue, 16 Apr 2013 16:37:49 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=658http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/snowshoe-hares-1024x729.pnghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/snowshoe-hares-1024x729.pnghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=700 Mother knows best? Maybe not. New research reveals that fathers are able to recognize whether a crying baby is their child as reliably as mothers can. This finding contradicts previous studies, and suggests that the amount of time a parent spends with his or her child, not the parent’s gender, has the greatest impact on whether the parent is able to identify the cry of a baby as his or her own. The idea that mothers are better able to recognize the cries of their own babies is a persistentTue, 16 Apr 2013 15:04:04 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=700http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/father.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/father.jpghttp://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/19-20-things-you-didnt-know-about-hairWe cut it, color it and coif it, but there's much more to hair than a style statement: It can remove toxins, reveal where you live and even "hear."Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:00:00 GMThttp://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/19-20-things-you-didnt-know-about-hairhttp://discovermagazine.com/~/media/42BEA38B16454A25B60B25B079EB521D.jpg?mw=500http://discovermagazine.com/~/media/42BEA38B16454A25B60B25B079EB521D.jpg?mw=500http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/09-archaeologists-find-earliest-evidence-of-humans-cooking-with-fireA cave in South Africa may be the site of the world's oldest barbecue — and a clue to early humans' development. Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:00:00 GMThttp://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/09-archaeologists-find-earliest-evidence-of-humans-cooking-with-firehttp://discovermagazine.com/~/media/AADA3FCDAE4045A895774F32C1F3C847.jpg?mw=500http://discovermagazine.com/~/media/AADA3FCDAE4045A895774F32C1F3C847.jpg?mw=500http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/06-tracking-gorilla-populations-human-interferenceShould we track great apes to save them or simply leave them alone?Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:30:00 GMThttp://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/06-tracking-gorilla-populations-human-interferencehttp://discovermagazine.com/~/media/75A08E59CCA34B30A18F425FEAA865CB.jpg?mw=500http://discovermagazine.com/~/media/75A08E59CCA34B30A18F425FEAA865CB.jpg?mw=500http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/?p=3294 They might not seem like the most expressive eyes you've ever seen---but the beady eyes of extinct trilobites have a lot to say. Recently, they've given us some new insights into the evolution of vision. Trilobites are one of the first animals in the fossil record to develop complex eyes (as opposed to the light-sensitive spots that passed as early eyes). So understanding trilobite vision is also understanding the origins of eyes themselves. It has even been hypothesized that trilobite visiThu, 11 Apr 2013 19:21:28 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/?p=3294http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/files/2013/04/trilobite_eyes.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/files/2013/04/trilobite_eyes.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=587 Baby birds appear to be pretty helpless creatures, cheeping incessantly and stretching their featherless necks out of the nest to get food plopped directly in their mouths. But when hunger strikes and the nest's cupboards are empty, what's a baby bird to do? Certain species, like the pied babbler, have figured out a way for young birds to blackmail their caretakers in order to get more food. All the adults in a pied babbler community share the burden of breeding and feeding their collectiWed, 10 Apr 2013 19:32:49 GMThttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/?p=587http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/baby-birds.jpghttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/files/2013/04/baby-birds.jpghttp://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/05-how-ant-slaves-overthrow-their-mastersDespite being an evolutionary dead end, one ant species rebels against the tyranny of another.Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:30:00 GMThttp://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/05-how-ant-slaves-overthrow-their-mastershttp://discovermagazine.com/~/media/9E04AB6DFACE4AA2B6E8DEEA276F51D2.jpg?mw=500http://discovermagazine.com/~/media/9E04AB6DFACE4AA2B6E8DEEA276F51D2.jpg?mw=500