Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 31, 2005

Ant School: The First Formal Classroom Found in Nature

Ants teach other ants how to find food using a poking and prodding technique called tandem running, a new study reveals. Researchers say the experiment reveals the first non-human example of formal instruction between a teacher and pupil in which there is two-way feedback and an adjustment of the course...

Dec 31, 2005

Chimps More Like Humans than Apes

While you might think of yourself as smarter than the average ape, beware: Those distant relatives of ours have a knack for evolving more quickly than we do. And by revealing this through DNA analysis, scientists have provided support for a controversial hypothesis that chimpanzees are more closely related to...

Nov 30, 2007

Incredible Batch of Rare and New Species Discovered

Two species of primates that are of global conservation concern, eight new species of katydids, a critically endangered frog species, 17 rare butterfly species and wild birds such as the brown-cheeked hornbill are among the finds of an expedition to a forest reserve in Ghana. Scientists exploring one of the...

Nov 30, 2007

Homosexuality Turned On and Off in Fruit Flies

While several studies find homosexuality in humans and other animals is biological rather than learned, a question remains over whether it's a hard-wired phenomenon or one that can be altered. A new study finds drugs or genetic manipulation can turn the homosexual behavior of fruit flies on and off within...

Nov 30, 2007

Birds Glad Cats Eat Rats

A rare burrowing bird known as a Cook's petrel seems to have dug a real hole for itself: it lives on a small island crawling with hungry rats and cats. Although the pests eat both eggs and chicks, new research suggests that the old adage my enemy's enemy is my...

Nov 30, 2007

Monkeys Do Math Like Humans

Monkeys can perform mental addition in a manner remarkably similar to college students, a new study shows. The researchers stressed that monkeys will not pass college math tests anytime soon. Nevertheless, the finding promises to shed light on the ancient origins of math in humanity and our distant relatives. Humans...

Nov 30, 2007

Hot Bugs Get More Sex

Being hot can lead to more sex. Especially if you're a male ambush bug. These predatory insects are known for camouflaging themselves against flowers, lying in wait to ambush prey. The ambush bug (Phymata americana) is mostly yellow with dark brown or black patches, with the males possessing darker heads...

Nov 30, 2007

World's Oldest Orangutan Dies

MIAMI (AP) -- A 55-year-old Sumatran orangutan, believed to be the world's oldest, has died at the Miami zoo. Nonja, who was born on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and lived in Miami since 1983, was found dead Saturday morning. Everybody's very sad, especially with an animal like an orangutan,...

Oct 31, 2007

Image Gallery: Great White Sharks

Open Wide (Image credit: © Klaus Jost, www.jostimages.com Used with permission.)An intriguing (and terrifying) look inside the mouth of the great white shark. Catch of the Day (Image credit: © Klaus Jost, www.jostimages.com Used with permission.)Great white shark jumps well above the ocean waters to catch this fish. Just Below...

Oct 31, 2007

The Truth about Tooth Decay

Are you worried that your mass consumption of Halloween candy this year will rot your teeth so badly that you will have the smile of a hockey player by next year? Well, don't take this as an invitation to eat a dozen Zagnut bars in one sitting, but there are...

Oct 31, 2007

Giant Dinosaur Skeleton Found in Museum Drawers

A curator has rediscovered a nearly complete giant Barosaurus skeleton hidden for years in museum drawers. The skeleton was pieced together from an array of giant bones now known to belong to an 80-foot-long (24 meters) dinosaur whose footsteps shook the Earth some 150 million years ago. The Barosaurus skeleton...

Oct 31, 2007

Huge Claw Belonged to 8-foot Sea Scorpion

The giant fossil claw of the largest sea scorpion found yet has just been uncovered. The 18-inch (46-centimeter) claw likely belonged to an 8-foot (2.46-meter) sea scorpion. Sea scorpions are thought to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of scorpions and possibly all arachnids. This is an amazing discovery, said researcher...

Oct 31, 2007

Dogs Do Well on Computers

They sport bejeweled chokers, lavish in spa bubble baths and have their own leather-bag chauffeurs. And now our almost-human dogs might also try their paws at computers. Four dogs strutted their stuff recently by using touch-screen computers to classify color photographs for a study of animal cognition. Using touch-screen computers...

Sep 30, 2007

Why Dogs Bite Kids

Territorial behavior, anxiety and other medical issues lead dogs to bite children, a new study shows. To see if there were any common links among dogs who had bitten a child within a particular four-year period, researchers examined 111 cases of dog bites by 103 dogs, all referred to the...

Sep 30, 2007

Polar Dinosaurs Left Their Tracks

Newly discovered footprints made by carnivorous dinosaurs in Australia reveal the ancient beasts survived in polar climes when the outback was still joined to Antarctica and close to the South Pole. The discovery of the three fossil tracks, each about 14 inches (36 centimeters) long and showing two to three...