1+ day, 22+ hour ago (243+ words) Marketing Coordinator & Writer Charlie has an undergraduate degree in Forensic Psychology and writes on topics from zoology and psychology to herpetology.View full profile Image credit: Edited by IFLScience Domestic cats the world over can trace their ancestry back to North African wildcats that lived around 2,000 years ago. It was from these feral felines that the very first domestic cats were produced, yet their cuteness and companionship were so coveted by humans that within a few decades they had spread to all corners of the Roman Empire. Read the full story here Hominin foot bones found in 3.4-million-year-old sediments in Ethiopia have been assigned to a recently described species. This provides further evidence of different elements of the human family tree living side-by-side in the cradle of humanity and further obscures the question of whether the best-known early human fossil…...

3+ day, 16+ hour ago (214+ words) Eleanor has an undergraduate degree in zoology from the University of Reading and a master's in wildlife documentary production from the University of Salford.View full profile Around 17-19 percent of the world's African forest elephant population lives in the Republic of Congo. Image credit: F. Maisels WCS African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) were only recognized as a species separate from the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana) in 2021. Now, new evidence and survey techniques have suggested there could be as many as 10,000 more forest elephants than previously thought." The new assessment totals 135,690 forest elephants, 16 percent more than the figure estimated in 2016, with an additional 7,728-10,990 individuals based on more tentative work. If factoring in both estimates and guesses, the report suggests the entire forest elephant population could be as high as 145,050. African forest elephants are found in 22 countries. Gabon holds 66-69 percent of the…...

5+ day, 4+ hour ago (549+ words) Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile Plaster casts of the head and foot of a dodo, at the Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton, England. Image credit: Ed Schipul via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) Have you heard that dodo meat tasted foul? Loathsome, even. You're not alone. It's a strangely prevalent rumor, given that nobody alive today has ever eaten one. However, it's quite possible that this "fact" is one that got lost in translation. Known to science as Raphus cucullatus, dodos also went by the nickname "wallowbird", said to have been inspired by the way their meat made people sick. But as Jan den Hengst, author of The Dodo: The Bird That Drew the Short Straw, wrote in a 2009 study, this dodo…...

6+ day, 45+ min ago (429+ words) Eleanor has an undergraduate degree in zoology from the University of Reading and a master's in wildlife documentary production from the University of Salford.View full profile Turtle hatchlings "danced" when in a magnetic field that they were trained to associate with food." Image credit: Alayna Mackiewicz Some of Earth's creatures are capable of extraordinary migrations, covering thousands of kilometers every year. But how do they know which way to go? For loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) the answer to that question rests inside their ability to detect the Earth's magnetic field " but how are they doing this? There are two ways that animals have been found to be able to sense Earth's magnetic field. Either the turtles possess light-sensitive molecules that are affected by the field and allow the animals to see it; or, there are tiny magnetite crystals…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago (397+ words) Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile Katy has a BA in Humanities and Philosophy, with over 20 years of experience in online and print publishing. She was named the Association of British Science Writers' Editor of the Year in 2023. Behold, Eremotherium! A giant ground sloth that may (or may not) have been naked during the Ice Age. Image credit: Apple TV, Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age "The ice is only in the extreme north and the extreme south," scientific advisor on the series, palaeontologist Dr Darren Naish, told IFLScience. "There are tropical and subtropical and temperate zones throughout the whole of the Ice Age, even at the height of the coldest bits." That's why, in a show you might reasonably be expecting to see…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago (467+ words) Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile Katy has a BA in Humanities and Philosophy, with over 20 years of experience in online and print publishing. She was named the Association of British Science Writers' Editor of the Year in 2023. The research highlights why recent closures and no-fishing zones are critical for the species' survival. The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is critically endangered due to environmental changes and human activity, both of which have contributed to food shortages. Now, new research has found that plummeting fish stocks are putting these penguins in direct competition with fishing vessels. The penguins are significantly more likely to be foraging in the same areas where fishing boats are operational in years when fish numbers are lower. The research…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (386+ words) Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile Holly has a degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Leicester. Her scientific interests include genomics, personalized medicine, and bioethics. That sperm whales repeated these intricate sounds suggests they're crucial to their social lives. Image credit: Gabriel Barathieu/Oregon State University via flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) You might've heard we're trying to talk to whales. It sounds crazy, but it's not so far-fetched, as in recent years we've been getting closer and closer to cracking the code of their remarkably complex communications. Studying animal communications is very difficult for a human as, despite our best scientific efforts, we can't help but approach it with the biases of Homo sapiens communication. A key moment for Project CETI…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago (545+ words) Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile Katy has a BA in Humanities and Philosophy, with over 20 years of experience in online and print publishing. She was named the Association of British Science Writers' Editor of the Year in 2023. Spotted lanternflies on a "tree of heaven" " the collab nobody asked for. Image credit: USDA via flickr, Public Domain Scientists are upping their game in the fight against a "double invasion" that's currently sweeping across Virginia in the US. Here, the invasive "tree of heaven" is providing prime real estate for another invader: the spotted lanternfly. The tree of heaven, known to science as Ailanthus altissima, was brought to the United States back in the 1700s. It was celebrated for its ornamental value, but as…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago (595+ words) Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile Katy has a BA in Humanities and Philosophy, with over 20 years of experience in online and print publishing. She was named the Association of British Science Writers' Editor of the Year in 2023. You don't want the egg to be in your mouth when it goes off. Image credit: IULIIA DAVYDOVA / Shutterstock.com It's happened again, folks. People have clocked onto to the explosive consequences of putting eggs in microwaves and they're filming videos of biting into them (we are once again asking you to stop doing weird things with eggs). It makes for some pretty dramatic footage, but why does it happen? Unlike your stove top that applies heat directly to a pan, microwaves heat food…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (417+ words) Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile Icefish persisting in the freezing Southern Ocean is a tale of salt, sea, and costly trade-offs. Image credit: uwe kils, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons cropped Extreme environments push life to its limits, but we've found all sorts of wacky extremophiles in some of Earth's most hostile places. In Antarctica, the waters can dip well below freezing, so how is it possible that life can survive here? And for that matter, why doesn't the water freeze? The threshold for forming that crystalline structure can drop when we introduce a small amount of something else like salt or alcohol into water, or copper into molten silver. This is why the freezing point of saltwater is around -1.8C (28.8F). Ice…...