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Why Are 90% Of Humans Right-Handed? An Evolutionary Biologist Explains
3+ hour, 30+ min ago (485+ words) The story of human handedness stretches back millions of years and weaves together evolutionary pressure, brain architecture, embryonic biology and a healthy dose of genetic complexity we haven't fully untangled. Here's what we've learned so far, according to research in…...
A Biologist Reveals The Longest Mammal Migration On Earth. Hint: It Happens Underwater
2+ mon, 4+ week ago (608+ words) Every year, unbeknownst to many, one of the most astonishing wildlife spectacles on the planet unfolds like clockwork: the steady, ceaseless migration of enormous marine mammals swimming thousands of miles. Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) hold the title of what marine…...
Meet The Biggest Millipede To Ever Exist. Hint: It Was Longer Than A Person
3+ mon, 8+ hour ago (1058+ words) The idea of a human-sized arthropod sounds like either science fiction or a nightmare to most people. Some of the largest land-dwelling arthropods of today, such as coconut crabs or giant millipedes, are impressive, but they're still modest in scale....
A Biologist Explains Why Humans Have Chins. Hint: Anthropologists Still Can't Agree On The Answer
3+ mon, 1+ day ago (816+ words) Look at your face in the mirror, and you'll see it instantly: the chin. This small, bony prominence at the bottom of our lower jaws is such a mundane feature that we hardly even notice that it's there " until you…...
Meet One Of Evolution's Weirdest Mammals. Hint: It Had A Horse's Head And Sloth-Like Claws
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (850+ words) Eventually, what they learned about this species was far more interesting than their initial hypothesis of it being a strange evolutionary offshoot. Here's how Chalicotherium represents one of the clearest fossil examples of convergent evolution, where an unrelated animal independently…...
A Biologist Explains How Prehistoric "Terror Birds" Earned Their Name
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (1001+ words) Evolution occasionally indulges us with organisms that seem too cool or too scary to be true, like something out of a science fiction film. The phorusrhacids, better known as "terror birds," are one such case. These were large, flightless predatory…...
Meet The Snake That Refused To Lose Its Legs " A Herpetologist Explains
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (661+ words) If you thought that snakes were always slithering, limbless creatures, then you'd be mistaken; hundreds of millions of years ago, snakes crawled before they slithered. However, deep in the Patagonia badlands of Argentina, one fossil has been undoing decades of…...
Meet The Takah" " The Flightless Bird That Fell Off The Face Of The Planet For Decades
4+ mon, 2+ week ago (665+ words) By the early 20th century, the takah" had seemingly disappeared forever. It was considered a lost relic of New Zealand's prehistoric avifauna, remembered only in museum specimens and fossil bones " until it reappeared almost half a century later. On November 20th, 1948, there…...
How The World's Rarest Insect Came Back From The Dead. Hint: It Was Rediscovered On A Volcano
4+ mon, 2+ week ago (734+ words) The Lord Howe stick insect (Dryococelus australis) was presumed extinct for decades. It was once abundant on Lord Howe Island, hence its name. It was so abundant, in fact, that local fishermen reportedly used them as bait. However, the species…...
Meet The 42-Foot Snake That Ruled Earth After The Dinosaurs " A Biologist Explains
4+ mon, 3+ week ago (536+ words) But beyond its immense size alone, Titanoboa also teaches us how the Earth's climate shaped evolution, during a time when it was recovering from the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs disappeared. Titanoboa was first discovered in 2009, when scientists excavating…...