Klunk and colleagues have, perhaps, taken the lead in assessing imperfect synchrony in animal displays. There is much to ponder in their new study: “Imperfect Synchrony in Animal Displays: Why Does It Occur and What Is the True Role of Leadership?” Daniela M. Perez, Cristian L. Klunk, and Sabrina B.L. Araujo, Philosophical Transactions of the […]
Taphonomic detectives can easily get caught up in wondering what kind of animal chewed on things that deteriorated and decayed to the point where, when those things were found, the remains of those things deserved to be called “the remains.” A chapter of the book Forensic Taphonomy and Ecology of North American Scavengers, by Susan […]
Scary animals, a new study reveals, can be separated into five distinct clusters : “(1) non‐slimy invertebrates; (2) snakes; (3) mice, rats, and bats; (4) human endo‐ and exoparasites (intestinal helminths and louse); and (5) farm/pet animals. However, only snakes, spiders, and parasites evoke intense fear and disgust in the non‐clinical population.” The diagram below […]
Here’s David Hu talking about seeing the inside of a dead deer—an experience that, when he was a child, excited David in a way that led to his eventual unusual career. David uses math and physics—and experiments—to try to understand some of the seemingly simply, scientifically mystifying things that happen in nature every day. ABOUT […]
If you call an English person ‘a mole’ will it carry the same weight as if you call a German person ‘ein Maulwurf’? The power of insults that are based on the names of animal species can vary quite dramatically across different languages and cultures. Prof. Dr. Dagmar Schmauks who is a supernumerary professor at […]
Colin Dickey, writing in Topic magazine, explores the history of the Ig Nobel Prize-winning poster “Penises of the Animal Kingdom” and its creator, Jim Knowlton. Dickey’s report bears the headline “The Penis Poster That Rubbed People the Wrong Way“: “… Knowlton had been a graduate student at Columbia University, working on a PhD in particle […]
A new study adds to our knowledge of why some animals sometimes smell like buttered popcorn. The study is: “Reproductive Endocrine Patterns and Volatile Urinary Compounds of Arctictis binturong: Discovering Why Bearcats Smell Like Popcorn,” Lydia K. Greene [pictured below], Timothy W. Wallen, Anneke Moresco, Thomas E. Goodwin, Christine M. Drea, The Science of Nature, […]
Jim Knowlton’s poster “Penises of the Animal Kingdom”, for which Mr. Knowlton was awarded the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize for art, is featured in this travel video. The video, made by Pommie Travels, is called “Giant Animal Penises: The Phallological Museum, Iceland”:
Which animal, in your opinion, is funnier, a Narwhal or a Numbat? A: Narwhal B: Numbat C: Neither If your answer was A, or B, then it adds weight to the hypothesis that animals can be listed in order of ‘funniness’. Messrs G. Stanley Hall and Arthur Alliń made progress in this area as far […]
“An animal may have holes.” So says the report: “Animal enumerations on regular tilings in Spherical, Euclidean, and Hyperbolic 2-dimensional spaces,” Tomás Oliveira e Silva, July 25, 2013. The author, at the Departamento de Eletrónica, Telecomunicações e Informática, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal, writes: “An animal with area n is any edge-connected set of n polygons (chosen […]