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

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

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

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

Many birds communicate using songs. Among them, the Ecuadorian Hillstar hummingbird produces a song with the highest pitch. Our previous research suggests that these hummingbirds produce high-pitch sounds to stand out from ambient noise. For vocal communication to be effective, the listener needs to hear the... click to read more