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Evolution & Behaviour

showing 11-15 of 148 breaks

Snake uses its split jaws as a knife and fork

Many animals use their limbs to handle their food and obtain edible pieces from it. To take a relatable example, we humans peel fruits, fillet fish, and break crabs with our hands and tools. In contrast, most animals that lack limbs (like snakes) would be... click to read more

  • Yosuke Kojima | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Japan
Views 2853
Reading time 4 min
published on Dec 10, 2021
The puzzling history of South American mammals

When the Isthmus of Panama formed, it connected North and South America, allowing the interchange of the previously separated faunas from two continents. A puzzling aspect of this interchange is that North American mammals seem to be more successful. The fossil record shows more mammals... click to read more

  • Juan D. Carrillo | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France; Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
Views 2268
Reading time 3.5 min
published on Nov 17, 2021
How does the bat find the tree? With a “cognitive” map!

As soon as the sun sets, hundreds of Egyptian fruit bats leave their cave and fly out, one-by-one, into the night. Their goal: trees bearing ripe fleshy fruits. They must consume more than twice their own body weight of this relatively uncommon and patchily-distributed resource... click to read more

  • David Shohami | PhD graduate at Movement Ecology Lab, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Views 2056
Reading time 3.5 min
published on Nov 8, 2021
Apes and monkeys understand syntax-like structures

Across the globe, humanity flourishes by sharing thoughts, culture, information, and technology through language – an incredibly complex method of communication used by no other species. Therefore, finding out why and when language evolved is crucial to understanding what it means to be human. However,... click to read more

  • Stuart K. Watson | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Views 2752
Reading time 3.5 min
published on Oct 6, 2021
Equalizing strength among sexes: generalized intersexuality in female moles

Female moles develop as intersexual individuals, a rather exceptional feature among mammals. But why did evolution shape the female mole body into an intersex one? Most likely, this is related to the rough environmental conditions where moles live. Moles spend their entire lives digging tunnels, fighting... click to read more

  • Francisca M. Real | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RG Development & Disease, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics; Institute for Medical and Human Genetics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • Stefan Mundlos | Professor at RG Development & Disease, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics; Institute for Medical and Human Genetics, Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT), Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • Darío G. Lupiáñez | Research Group Leader at Max‐Delbrück‐Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB), Berlin, Germany
Views 3703
Reading time 3.5 min
published on Oct 4, 2021