Shark Bites Whale

Phys.Org mentions an interesting article published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. The article concerns a fragment of a whale rib, dating to the Pliocene, that shows evidence of a shark bite. In this case the rib also displays evidence of having survived the attack. From Phys.Org:

New Zoo Baby

Below is a picture of the newest resident at the St. Louis Zoo: It is a male black rhino born on January 14th.

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh My!

Okay it’s none of the above, it’s a mountain lion spotted in St. Louis County. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch The question is: What’s it doing in Chesterfield? The Missouri Department of Conservation isn’t quite sure, but most likely the mountain lion was just passing through in search of territory or a mate. The [...]

The Independent Origins of Blood/Oxygen Transport Mechanisms

This is pretty cool. Science Daily PhysOrg mentions research in PNAS An extended excerpt from Science Daily PhysOrg:

Brain Size, Body Size, and Longevity

Science Daily mentions an interesting paper on the relationship between brain size, body, and longevity in mammals. From Science Daily:

Good Lord! I Hope They Don’t Team Up With The Cows!

Apparently, Chi ckens have better color vision than humans: Scientists mapped five types of light receptors in the chicken’s eye. They discovered the receptors were laid out in interwoven mosaics that maximized the chicken’s ability to see many colors in any given part of the retina, the light-sensing structure at the back of the eye. [...]

Fossil Raccoon Dog From The Awash

Zeray Alemseged and company will be publishing a paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology announcing the discovery of a new species of (extinct) raccoon dog. The new species, Nyctereutes lockwoodi – named, I’m guessing, after the late Charles Lockwood – dates to about 3.3 MYA. The new species is based on a nearly complete [...]

Naked Mole Rats In The News

Science Daily has an interesting story on naked mole rats (and how could a story on naked mole rats be anything other than interesting I ask):

What Do You Do With A Giant Squid?

Eat it, of course: Does this mean that Cthulhu will not return until sperm whales are extinct? National Geographic has more pictures…

Cooperation in Spotted Hyenas

PhysOrg.Com has an interesting item on problem solving and cooperation in spotted hyenas. The item concerns recent research published in Animal Behavior. From PhysOrg.Com: Drea’s research, published online in the October issue of Animal Behavior, shows that social carnivores like spotted hyenas that hunt in packs may be good models for investigating cooperative problem solving [...]

Saturday Great White Shark Blogging

Just because… Great white 

Florida Pythons: What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

Florida has a python problem which just got worse. According to a story on National Geographic African rock pythons have been found in the wild in Florida

Dogs as Models of Human Behavior

Back in March I wrote this post looking at which species are better models for the evolution of human behavior and cognition. A new paper on the subject has come out in the journal Behavioral and Brain Functions.

Why Do Dogs Bark?

PhysOrg.Com mentions some interesting research being published in Behavioural Processes. Not Only Dogs, but Deer, Monkeys and Birds Bark to Deal with Conflict:

Megalodon and The Great White Shark: Transitional Fossil Found

But, it doesn’t link Great Whites and Megalodon. Longtime readers may remember this three part series on the subject. An interesting new fossil has been discovered that sheds some more light on the subject.