Category Archives: News & Archives

A 550-million-year-old worm was one of the first animals to move and make decisions, a new study says

Who would've thought an ancient worm would fill in an important blank in evolution? Tracks from a worm-like creature were preserved in fossils nearly 550 million years old. Researchers said the fossils indicate the earliest evidence of animals making decisions and moving on their own, according to a study published in Nature. The team of…

Scientists have identified the genes linked to left-handedness

For the first time, scientists have identified the genetic differences associated with left-handedness, a trait found in 10% of the human population. What's more, those genetic variants result in differences in brain structure, which might mean that left-handed people have better verbal skills than the right-handed majority. While previous research into twins has indicated that…

Volunteers scour Cocoa Beach for displaced sea turtles, eggs after Hurricane Dorian

Whenever huge storms and hurricanes threaten county beaches, the Sea Turtle Preservation Society begins to worry. Dave Cheney explained to Channel 9 how exposed nests can mean destruction for turtle eggs. "The waves will erode nests," said Cheney. "They'll open up some of the nests." Even though many eggs may have been lost, experts said the…

Scientists isolate drought-resistant gene in barley

The discovery of a gene in barley responsible for drought resistance will help future-proof crops against some of the effects of climate change, scientists believe. Researchers spent nearly five years isolating the specific gene – HvMYB1 – from more than 39,000 genes in barley. Tests proved that plants in which the gene is more prominently…

What’s affecting some Florida panthers’ ability to walk? It’s a mystery

Something is affecting the walking ability of some Florida panthers and bobcats, and state scientists want the public’s help documenting the mystery disorder. The ailment is reportedly impacting the cats’ ability to coordinate their back legs, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission press release. This month, FWC has confirmed neurological damage in…

First cells may have emerged because building blocks of proteins stabilized membranes

Life on Earth arose about 4 billion years ago when the first cells formed within a primordial soup of complex, carbon-rich chemical compounds. These cells faced a chemical conundrum. They needed particular ions from the soup in order to perform basic functions. But those charged ions would have disrupted the simple membranes that encapsulated the…

After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape

Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground sloths and giant beavers -- began their precipitous slide to extinction. And when their populations crashed, emptying a land whose diversity of large animals equaled…

Trump administration overhauls U.S. wildlife protections over objections of conservationists

The Trump administration on Monday finalized changes to provisions of the U.S. Endangered Species Act it says will streamline the decades-old wildlife protection law but which conservation groups say will threaten at-risk species. © AP Photo/Eric Gay A monarch butterfly lands on a confetti lantana plant in San Antonio. The 1970s-era Act is credited with bringing…

Florida is known for its unique critters and the landscapes they call home. On the heels of a sighting of a python swimming in Naples Bay, it may be wise to remember the state is rife with sharp-toothed wildlife. The American alligator One of the most capable predators on the planet. The longest alligator caught in…

This Ancient Giant Armadillo Is Responsible For Giving Us The Avocado

But not just this giant armadillo. Giant sloths, four-tusked elephants, and a whole bunch of other ancient mammals that roamed the earth over 10,000 years ago also all played a role. Over at National Geographic's The Plate, they're looking at the history of how the modern avocado evolved. The history of humans and avocados stretches back quite far —…