The Week: Most Recent nature

The 10 weirdest new species of 2012

The Week — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:22:00 -0500

It's estimated that Earth is home to at least 8 million living species, and every year scientists add 15,000 to 20,000 new discoveries to that tally. But thousands of species are threatened with extinction, too, thanks to habitat destruction, climate change, and other factors. For the past five years, in an effort to bring attention to the biodiversity crisis, the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) at Arizona State University has worked in conjunction with biologists worldwide to cobble together the newly added animals and plants they find most interesting. More than...

Discovered: The ancient turtle as big as a car

The Week — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:23:00 -0500

The remains of a gigantic, predatory turtle were just unearthed in a Colombia coal mine, giving researchers new insights into the tendency for oversize species to thrive after the age of the dinosaurs. North Carolina State University paleontologists call the 60-million-year-old reptile Carbonemys cofrinii, or "coal turtle." Here, a concise guide to the discovery:

How big was it?
The lake-dwelling turtle was about the size of a Smart car, and came packing a 5.7-foot shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. It belonged to a family of freshwater reptiles known as side-neck turtles, so...

The violent sex life of the 'dagger penis' bug

The Week — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:16:00 -0500

Some insects — like the female praying mantis — are known to devour puny male partners soon after mating. But that seems almost tame compared to the violent copulation techniques employed by Xylocoris flavipes, more commonly known as the warehouse pirate bug. A male on the prowl comes equipped with a spiny "dagger penis," which the bug uses to forcibly stab its way into a female's abdomen, ejaculating once inside. Now, a new Swedish study has shed more light on the ramifications of this unusual reproduction technique. Here, a brief guide to the six-legged critter's scary mating...

The chimp who learned to trick humans... and pelt them with stones

The Week — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:54:00 -0500

When visitors to the Furuvik Zoo in Sweden approach the pen of Santino, a cranky male chimpanzee, they often find themselves on the receiving end of flying rocks, which the 34-year-old ape keeps cleverly hidden in his enclosure. Now, Santino's increasingly tricky antics have drawn the attention of the scientific community. In a new study published in the journal PLoS One, researchers suggest that the chimp's deceptions hint at a deep level of thinking once only associated with humans. Here's what you should know about the supersmart ape:

How did the rock-flinging start?
One day in 2010, an apparently...

The dolphins that overdosed on heroin... at a rave

The Week — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:08:00 -0500

Last November, two dolphins at a Swiss zoo endured slow, painful deaths after the facility hosted a weekend rave. Initially, puzzled officials blamed the animals' fates on everything from blaring music to vet negligence. But new toxicology reports reveal that the mammals died of a drug overdose. Here, a brief guide to this tragic story:

What happened to the dolphins?
Shadow and Chelmers of the Connyland Marine Park in Switzerland died mysteriously, and within five days of each other, following a weekend-long rave. "Animal-rights activists originally blamed the deaths on the event's techno music...

Did farting kill the dinosaurs?

The Week — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:36:00 -0500

While scientists are touting a new study of dinosaur flatulence as a "major new climate finding," the media is greeting it with undisguised mirth. According to this research, the prehistoric beasts may have tooted so much methane into the air that they triggered a catastrophic climate change and, consequently, their own extinction. Here's a guide to the revolutionary — and, for some, giggle-worthy — findings:

What's this new research?
A study by a team of British scientists published in Current Biology argues that dinosaur flatulence "turned the Earth into one giant Dutch oven, contributing...

The tiny shark that glows in the dark

The Week — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:40:00 -0500

The shark is already the ocean's most feared predator. But two lesser-known (and relatively unintimidating) tiny species of the hunter have an extra "superpower," says Jeanna Bryner at LiveScience. The hand-sized smalleye pygmy shark and its slightly larger relative, the lantern shark, possess the astounding ability to make their bellies glow. And now, new research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology confirms why the animals evolved the trick. Here's a glimpse at the ocean's tiny, glow-in-the-dark predators:

Why do they glow?
It's long been speculated that these relatively vulnerable...

Are jellyfish taking over the oceans?

The Week — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:30:00 -0500

Beach-goers will want to be on high alert when they wade into the water this summer, as populations of stinging jellyfish are booming in almost every ocean around the world. What's worse is that the pesky invertebrates seem to be most prevalent in areas where human activity is heavily concentrated. Here, a guide to the sticky situation:

What's the evidence that jellyfish populations are growing?
Since the mid-20th century, researchers have suspected that jellyfish populations were climbing. Those worries were confirmed recently when marine biologists from the University of British Columbia examined...

The 'miracle chick' born without an egg

The Week — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:33:00 -0500

Which came first: The chicken or the egg? It's a simple question with grand implications about philosphy, the origins of life, and the creation of our universe. Perhaps that's why humans have pondered the riddle for centuries. But do we finally have an answer? Maybe, now that a mother hen in Sri Lanka has given birth to a baby chick — without an egg. Here, a brief guide to this intriguing tale:

How was a chick born without an egg?
"Normally, eggs are passed out of a hen's body and incubated" in the outside world, says the U.K.'s Metro. But in this case, in a medical mystery that local...

The unsettling resurgence of rhino poaching: By the numbers

The Week — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:20:00 -0500

In underground markets, rhino horns are now worth an estimated $25,000 per pound, more than the cost of the same amount of cocaine in the U.S. In countries like Vietnam and China, people use the ground up horns, which produce a fingernail-like substance, to treat everything from headaches to fevers and even cancer. Although the medicinal benefits of the horns are scientifically unproven, illegal poaching of the burly animal hit an all-time high in 2011: In South Africa alone, where 90 percent of the world's rhino population lives, 448 of the mammals were killed last year. The death toll is expected...

Do the world's coral reefs have herpes?

The Week — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:15:00 -0500

The world's coral reefs are dying, and experts think global warming and pollution are among the main causes. But new research suggests that there might be another culprit: Herpes. An abundance of viruses, in the herpes family, could be playing a role in decimating the ocean's coral populations. Here's what you should know about the strange findings:

Herpes?
Evidently. The new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, uncovered several variations of herpes-like viruses infecting coral populations around the globe. "We've identified 22 kinds of emerging disease that...

Are dolphins the gangsters of the sea?

The Week — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:07:00 -0500

The whip-smart bottlenose dolphin continues to surprise scientists with its intelligence, with new research suggesting that the brainy marine mammals form intricate, gang-like groups to protect their herd and attack rivals. Here's what you should know about the ocean's secret mobsters:

How was this research conducted?
A team from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, spent more than six years observing roughly 120 dolphins in Shark Bay, an eight-square-mile area off the coast of western Australia. Dr. Richard Connor, who led the team, first began studying the bay's dolphins in the...

Wisconsin's 'baffling' booms: A concise guide

The Week — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:31:00 -0500

It was a sleepless week for the 4,600 residents of Clintonville, Wis. In an unsettling twist on things going bump in the night, the city has endured since Sunday a series of loud booms whose source is as maddeningly elusive as a phantom itch. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) claims that a recent "swarm" of low-grade earthquakes might be the culprit, but even USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso says he's "skeptical" that such small temblors could yield this kind of noise. Here, a guide to Clintonville's "baffling" booms:

What do they sound like?
Some locals have likened the noise to thunderclaps...

Why giant squids have enormous eyes

The Week — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:32:00 -0500

The disproportionately large eyes of the giant squid have long been one of the creature's more confounding attributes. And now, researchers are positing that the unusually large eyeballs are an evolutionary response to one of the invertebrate's most long-standing enemies — the fearsome sperm whale. Read on:

How large are these eyes?
The squid's eyes can be the size of basketballs — larger than those of any known animal — and the creature itself can grow up to 46 feet long and weigh as much as five adult men. Similarly sized animals, such as whales and swordfish...

Do fruit flies use alcohol to cope with sexual rejection?

The Week — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:02:00 -0500

Love got you down? You're not alone. New research finds that the tiny male fruit fly, when rejected by a flirty female bug, sometimes drowns his sorrow in booze. Here, a look at the study:

So the bugs are sad?
Not exactly. A chronically sex-deprived fruit fly experiences a decrease in a brain chemical called neuropeptide F (NPF) which may play a role in the bug's internal reward system. Eating food or finding a mate — activities that increase the fly's survival odds — both help boost a bug's NPF levels. In the absence of female interaction, an external stimulus like alcohol does...

What we can learn from the octopus

The Week — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:28:00 -0500

FISH DON'T TRY to turn sharks into vegetarians. Living immersed in a world of constant risk forces the fish to develop multiple ways to live with risk, rather than try to eliminate it. The fish can dash away from the shark in a burst of speed, live in places sharks can't reach, use deceptive coloration to hide from the shark, form schools with other fish to confuse the shark — it can even form an alliance with the shark. All of these things may help the fish solve the problem of how to avoid getting eaten by the shark. But none of these adaptations will help the fish solve the general problem...