A small fish found in streams across Europe has a human-like ability to learn, British scientists reported.
The nine-spined stickleback could be the first animal to exhibit a key human social learning strategy that allows it to compare the behaviour of others to its own experience and make choices that lead it to better food supplies.
“Small fish may have small brains but they still have some surprising cognitive abilities,” said Jeremy Kendal of Durham University.
Microbiologists in Maharashtra have found ‘magnetic bacteria’ in the ancient Lonar lake formed due to meteorite impact, a finding that might open a vista for searching extra-terrestrial life.
The magnetotactic bacteria, which are object of interest of scientists from various fields world over, were isolated from the lake in Maharashtra’s Buldana district which is the only impact crater formed in basaltic rock.
The bacteria are unique as they swim along geomagnetic field lines because they contain tiny magnetic crystals called magnetosomes, said Mahesh Chavadar, a microbiologist at the Yashwantrao Chavan College of Science in Karad.
Continue reading ‘Microbiologists find magnetic bacteria in Lonar lake’
After 111 years, a tiny legless lizard, once thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in the Northern Territory.
Since the chance find last year, near the spot where the reptile was first spotted by Europeans, a team led by Territory government wildlife ecologist Chris Pavey has found 18 more of the 25cm-long bronzeback snake-lizards at 15 locations along the border with South Australia.
“They’re very cute,” Dr Pavey said of the harmless insect-eating animal, which has a bronze back, pale grey head and dark-brown stripes running along its sides from snout to tail tip.Although they look like snakes, legless lizards — also known as flap-footed lizards — evolved from Australian geckos and have no direct evolutionary connection with snakes. The only similarity is that both are reptiles.
Dr Pavey said Peter McDonald, a technical officer with the Territory’s Environment Department, discovered a single bronzeback last year while surveying a rare acacia species near Charlotte Waters.
Working staff of the Nankang Museum inspect a construction site where dinosaur egg fossils were found in Nankang, east China’s Jiangxi Province.
Vladimir Putin
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