Experts have discovered that some chimpanzees have a bone in their heart, which could be vital in managing their health and conservation. Very few species of animals have this bone — called an os cordis — therefore this is a particularly rare find. The exciting research, which was carried out by experts from the University’s…

Scientists have discovered that young alligators have the ability to regrow their tails up to three-quarters of a foot — about 18 percent of their total body length. The researchers speculate that this ability to regrow tails gives the alligators a functional advantage in their murky aquatic habitats. A team of researchers from Arizona State…

New research has found southern Australian long-finned pilot whales are able to mimic the calls of its natural predator and food rival — the killer whale, as a possible ploy to outsmart it. The study is the first published research analysing the calls of long-finned pilot whales in the Southern Hemisphere, which were recorded in…

Scientists conclusively confirm the time year of the catastrophic Chicxulub asteroid, responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs and 75 percent of life on Earth 66 million years ago. Springtime, the season of new beginnings, ended the 165-million-year reign of dinosaurs and changed the course of evolution on Earth. Results of the study, published in the…

Researchers find that a ‘lost’ family of cockroaches may be the missing link in the evolution of insects from prehistoric times to the present day. Despite the discovery of fossils dating to the Carboniferous period ~320 million years ago, the evolution of modern cockroaches from these prehistoric ancestors remains a little hazy. To better understand…

In the dark of night, ogre-faced spiders with dominating big eyes dangle from a silk frame to cast a web and capture their ground prey. But these spiders also can capture insects flying behind them with precision, and scientists have now confirmed how. In a new study, researchers confirmed these spiders use metatarsal sensitivity —…

By closely examining the jaw mechanics of juvenile and adult tyrannosaurids, some of the fiercest dinosaurs to inhabit earth, scientists have uncovered differences in how they bit into their prey. They found that younger tyrannosaurs were incapable of delivering the bone-crunching bite that is often synonymous with the Tyrannosaurus rex and that adult specimens were…

New research indicates that the legendary Sargasso Sea, which includes part of the Bermuda Triangle and has long featured in fiction as a place where ships go derelict, may actually be an important nursery habitat for young sea turtles. Researchers presented evidence of baby green sea turtles arriving at the Sargasso Sea after entering the…

Researchers have shown for the first time how to design the basic elements needed for logic operations using a kind of material called a liquid crystal — paving the way for a completely novel way of performing computations. The results, published Feb. 23 in Science Advances, are not likely to become transistors or computers right…

New research suggests that rocks in the Martian crust could produce the same kind of chemical energy that supports microbial life deep beneath Earth’s surface. The study, published in the journal Astrobiology, looked at the chemical composition of Martian meteorites — rocks blasted off of the surface of Mars that eventually landed on Earth. The…