Hollow trees host massive moth slumber parties
Unlike social insects such as bees and ants, moths are generally loners. So, when Florida Museum of Natural History lepidopterist…
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Moths with larger hindwings and longer tails are best at deflecting bats
Each night, dramatic aerial battles are waged above our heads, complete with barrel rolls, razor-sharp turns, sonar jamming, cloaking devices…
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Fossils show ancient primates had grooming claws as well as nails
Humans and other primates are outliers among mammals for having nails instead of claws. But how, when and why we…
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Amber fossils provide oldest evidence of frogs in wet, tropical forests
About 99 million years ago, a tiny juvenile frog in present-day Myanmar was suddenly trapped in sap with a beetle,…
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Teachers receive fossils, create lesson plans at museum workshop
Florida Museum of Natural History researchers and amateur paleontologists teamed up to give K-12 teachers a crash course that came…
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Museum biologist joins ‘moonshot’ project to sequence DNA of all eukaryotes
Florida Museum of Natural History plant biologist Pam Soltis is part of a 24-member team that aims to sequence the…
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Turtle shells help decode complex links between modern, fossil species
Imagine that Labradors and golden retrievers died out a million years ago, leaving only fossilized skeletons behind. Without the help…
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At last, butterflies get a bigger, better evolutionary tree
For hundreds of years, butterfly collecting has often inspired a special kind of fanaticism, spurring lengthy expeditions, sparking rivalries and…
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2017 ‘average’ year for shark attacks, deaths
With 88 reported unprovoked shark attacks and five fatalities worldwide, 2017 was “just an average year,” according to the University…
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Evolution of China’s flowering plants shows East-West divide between lineages
An international team of scientists has mapped the evolutionary relationships between China’s 30,000 flowering plant species, uncovering a distinct regional…
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