Mammals News

July 21, 2024

Top Headlines

A New Addition to the CRISPR Toolbox: Teaching the Gene Scissors to Detect RNA

July 16, 2024 — CRISPR-Cas systems, defense systems in bacteria, have become a plentiful source of technologies for molecular diagnostics. Researchers have now expanded this extensive toolbox further. Their novel ...

How Domestic Rabbits Become Feral in the Wild

July 12, 2024 — After sequencing the genomes of nearly 300 rabbits from Europe, South America, and Oceania, researchers found that all of them had a mix of feral and domestic DNA. They say this was not what they had expected to ...

First Ever 3D Reconstruction of 52,000-Year-Old Woolly Mammoth Chromosomes Thanks to Serendipitously Freeze-Dried Skin

July 11, 2024 — An international research team has assembled the genome and 3D chromosomal structures of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth -- the first time such a feat has been achieved for any ancient DNA sample. ...

Ancient Large Kangaroo Moved Mainly on Four Legs, According to New Research

July 9, 2024 — A type of extinct kangaroo that lived during the Pleistocene around two and a half million to ten thousand years ago, known as the 'giant wallaby', was a poor hopper, a study has ...

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The Courtship of Leopard Seals Off the Coast of South America

July 17, 2024 — A pioneering study has unveiled the first paired observations of sexual behavior and vocalizations in wild leopard seals. The study on the mysterious leopard seal represents a major advance in ...

Wildlife Tracking Technology That Adheres to Fur Delivers Promising Results from Trials on Wild Polar Bears

July 15, 2024 — Studying polar bears just became a lot easier with new 'burr on fur' trackers which confirmed scientists' belief that subadult and adult males spend ...

Early Pyrenean Neolithic Groups Applied Species Selection Strategies to Produce Bone Artifacts

July 11, 2024 — A study has revealed that the earliest Neolithic groups to settle some 7,000 years ago in the Pyrenean site of Coro Trasito (Tella, Huesca) used ...

Wolves' Return Has Had Only Small Impact on Deer Populations in NE Washington

July 10, 2024 — Wolves returned to Washington state in 2008. A new study shows that, despite their rising numbers, wolves are not having much of an impact on ...

Pasteurization Inactivates Highly Infectious Avian Flu in Milk, Study Suggests

July 3, 2024 — Researchers found no infectious virus in the sampled pasteurized milk products tested for ...

Spotted Apex Predator Being Pressured by Spotted Pack Hunters -- And It's Our Fault

July 2, 2024 — Leopards, who are already in decline, can't keep up with hyenas when people are around. As we humans move into the their territories more and more, ...

Genetic Patterns of World's Farmed, Domesticated Foxes Revealed Via Historical Deep-Dive

July 1, 2024 — Domesticated animals play a prominent role in our society, with two-thirds of American families enjoying the companionship of pets and many others ...

New Mathematical Model Sheds Light on the Absence of Breastfeeding in Male Mammals

June 27, 2024 — Mathematicians ave put forward a hypothesis which suggests that the reason male mammals don't breastfeed might be driven by the rich community of ...

Researchers Find Genetic Stability in a Long-Term Panamanian Hybrid Zone of Manakin Birds

June 26, 2024 — We often think of species as separate and distinct, but sometimes they can interbreed and create hybrids. When this happens consistently in a ...

Last Surviving Woolly Mammoths Were Inbred but Not Doomed to Extinction

June 27, 2024 — The last population of woolly mammoths was isolated on Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia 10,000 years ago, when sea levels rose and cut the mountainous island off from the mainland. A new ...

Whale Remains Tracked to Highlight Sustainable Disposal Benefits

July 10, 2024 — A new study highlights the sustainable, cultural and ecosystem benefits of offshore removal or decomposition of whale remains. The study tracked the remains of a humpback whale that was intercepted ...

Wolves Reintroduced to Isle Royale Temporarily Affect Other Carnivores, Humans Have Influence as Well

June 27, 2024 — In a rare opportunity to study carnivores before and after wolves were reintroduced to their ranges, researchers found that the effects of wolves on Isle Royale have been only temporary. And even in ...

Rewriting the Armadillo Family Tree: A New Species, Plus a Name Change for the State Mammal of Texas

June 26, 2024 — The nine-banded armadillo, which ranges all the way from Argentina to Nebraska, is actually four separate species. One of the species, the Guianan long-nosed armadillo, is new to science. Meanwhile, ...

Newly Discovered Dinosaur Boasts Big, Blade-Like Horns

June 20, 2024 — A new dinosaur has been identified and named. The dinosaur's name, Lokiceratops rangiformis, translates roughly to 'Loki's horned face that looks like a ...

Direct Evidence Found for Dairy Consumption in the Pyrenees in the Earliest Stages of the Neolithic

June 17, 2024 — A study on the remains of the Chaves and Puyascada caves, both located in the province of Huesca, Spain, yields the first direct proof of the consumption and processing of dairy products in the ...

Dolphins With Elevated Mercury Levels in Florida and Georgia

June 13, 2024 — Scientists found elevated mercury levels in dolphins in the U.S. Southeast. The highest levels were found in dolphins in Florida's St. Joseph and Choctawhatchee Bays. Researchers study dolphins ...

Pacific Coast Gray Whales Have Gotten 13% Shorter in the Past 20-30 Years, Oregon State Study Finds

June 12, 2024 — Gray whales that spend their summers feeding in the shallow waters off the Pacific Northwest coast have undergone a significant decline in body length since around the year 2000, a new study ...

Two Can Play That Game: Juvenile Dolphins Who Play Together Are More Successful as Adults

June 10, 2024 — Juvenile social play predicts adult reproductive success in male bottlenose dolphins, a new study has ...

Flapping Frequency of Birds, Insects, Bats and Whales Described by Universal Equation

June 5, 2024 — A single universal equation can closely approximate the frequency of wingbeats and fin strokes made by birds, insects, bats and whales, despite their different body sizes and wing shapes, researchers ...

Rocky Shores of Pacific Northwest Show Low Resilience to Changes in Climate

June 4, 2024 — A 15-year period ending in 2020 that included a marine heat wave and a sea star wasting disease epidemic saw major changes in the groups of organisms that live along the rocky shores of the Pacific ...

Human Activity Contributed to Woolly Rhinoceros' Extinction

June 4, 2024 — Researchers have discovered sustained hunting by humans prevented the woolly rhinoceros from accessing favourable habitats as Earth warmed following the Last Ice ...

Food Drove the Evolution of Giraffes' Long Neck

June 3, 2024 — A study explores body proportions of Masai giraffes, lending insight into why giraffes have such long necks and how this trait might have ...

Complete X and Y Chromosome Sequences of Living Great Ape Species Determined

May 29, 2024 — Newly generated, complete genomes for the sex chromosomes of six primate species may inform conservation of these endangered species and shed light on sex-related genetic diseases in both humans and ...

Fatal Attraction: When Endangered Species Try to Mate With Domestic Relatives, Both Wildlife and People Lose

May 29, 2024 — Sticks and stones aren't enough to thwart biological attraction, but sometimes those are the only tools available to pastoralists trying to prevent wildlife from eloping with their livestock. A ...

Smarter Foragers Do Not Forage Smarter

May 28, 2024 — Why do primates have big brains? In the Panamanian rainforest, scientists pitted large-brained primates against smaller-brained mammals to find out who was the smartest ...

Florida Fossil Porcupine Solves a Prickly Dilemma 10-Million Years in the Making

May 28, 2024 — An exceptionally rare fossilized porcupine skeleton discovered in Florida has allowed researchers to trace the evolutionary history for one of North America's rarest ...

Echidnapus Identified from an 'Age of Monotremes'

May 27, 2024 — Australian researchers have found evidence of the oldest known platypus and a new species, dubbed 'echidnapus', which has a platypus-like anatomy alongside features that more closely ...

Constantly on the Hunt for Food: Harbor Porpoises More Vulnerable Than Previously Thought

May 23, 2024 — Constantly on the hunt for food: Harbor porpoises more vulnerable than previously thought to the disturbances from humans. The small whales spend more than 60 percent of their day hunting small fish ...

Future Climate Impacts Put Whale Diet at Risk

May 22, 2024 — A new study predicts future climate change impacts could disrupt the krill-heavy diet that humpback whales in the southern hemisphere ...

Australian Study Proves 'Humans Are Planet's Most Frightening Predator'

May 22, 2024 — A new study demonstrates that kangaroos, wallabies and other Australian marsupials fear humans far more than any other ...