Life

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- Fossils
Teeny Skull Reveals Ancient Ancestor
A tiny fossil skull represents the earliest known ancestor of monkeys and apes.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Baboons listen for who’s tops
Baboons can tell who's in charge by the sound of voices alone.
By Emily Sohn - Brain
Worry seems to shorten a timid rat’s life
Rats that prefer familiar settings tend to die younger than do more adventurous rats.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Helping to save elephants
Preserving an enormous creature like the Asian elephant can be very challenging.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Farming on a snail’s scale
Some snails plow leaves and add fertilizer to grow a fungus for dinner.
By Emily Sohn - Brain
Brain signals attention disorder
Children with attention disorders appear to have less tissue in certain parts of their brain.
By Emily Sohn - Earth
Killer space rock snuffed out ancient life
Rock fragments from Antarctica suggest a huge meteor struck Earth 250 million years ago.
By Emily Sohn - Fossils
Dinosaurs grow up
Learning how fast dinosaurs grew may help link birds to dinosaurs.
By Emily Sohn - Animals
Poisonous Spiders as Reluctant Hunters
The brown recluse spider prefers scavenging dead food to hunting live prey.
By Emily Sohn - Fossils
Did dinosaurs do handstands?
Enormous dinosaurs might have balanced on their front feet when wading in shallow water.
- Fossils
Watery fate for nature’s gliders
Fossil bones hint that sea-level increases doomed Atlantic albatross populations.
- Brain
Memories are made with sleep
Sleep can rescue memories that are starting to fade.
By Emily Sohn