As recently reported in the Journal of Behavioral Ecology, nine-spine sticklebacks have been named the geniuses of the fish world, after researchers in Leicestershire discovered that they possess a learning method previously unseen in any other animal apart from humans. Known as “hill-climbing,” this type of sophisticated social learning causes the fish to be selective [...]
Entries from June 2009
June 18, 2009
Back to Work, Sleepy Fire Ant!
* Picture from http://myrmecos.wordpress.com. In a recent study for the Journal of Insect Behaviour researchers from the University of South Florida have described the sleeping habits of a colony of fire ants, revealing that while the queens have up to ninety leisurely six-minute dozing sessions per day, the worker ants take around 250 sixty-second naps, [...]
June 16, 2009
Oh Hey, Cephalopod. How Much of That Did You Just Hear…?
For the first time since the question was asked last century, researchers in Taiwan have confirmed that cephalopods (octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and nautiluses) can perceive sound. They might not have a swim bladder connected to tiny otoliths to help them amplify and transmit sound like fish do, but it has been suggested that they use [...]
June 3, 2009
Well This is Embarrassing…
Last month, researchers from the El Instituto de Geología Económica in Madrid uncovered the remarkably complete fossils of numerous giant clustered trilobites in a rock quarry in northern Portugal. The largest trilobites found to date, one stretching to almost 90 centimetres in length, this thousand-strong group appears to have expired en masse when the stagnant [...]
June 2, 2009
It’s Called a “Personal Brand,” Komodo Dragon.
I guess theoretically I’m supposed to like Komodo Dragons. They’re beady-eyed giant lizards with formidable claws, which is really a rather wonderful thing to be. And okay, so they might a little frightening, but that’s not so inappropriate seeing as they are beady-eyed giant lizards with formidable claws. And yet, they’ve managed to really grate [...]
