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How marine mammals stay hydrated in a salty sea

Popular Science

This adorable sea lion has to eat five to eight percent of its body weight every day to stay healthy and hydrated. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Over the long and complicated course of evolutionary history, mammals independently turned towards water to make a home multiple times. While many of the warm-blooded animals that abandoned dry land for a watery habitat no longer exist, we still have plenty of stunning examples: Think dolphins, whales, manatees, porpoises. There's even a whole suborder of carnivores called the pinnipeds, which includes seals, sea lions, and walruses who move between land and water.




Pigs have been island hopping for 50,000 years

Popular Science

With human help, the mammals can defy'the world's most fundamental natural boundaries.' Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Despite not exactly being world-renowned swimmers, pigs have spread across the Asia-Pacific region for thousands of years . With the genetic and archeological data from over 700 pigs, a team of scientists documented how people helped the mammals make their way across thousands of miles. "This research reveals what happens when people transport animals enormous distances, across one of the world's most fundamental natural boundaries," evolutionary geneticist and study co-author author Dr. David Stanton of the University of Cardiff and Queen Mary University of London said in a statement. "These movements led to pigs with a melting pot of ancestries. These patterns were technically very difficult to disentangle, but have ultimately helped us understand how and why animals came to be distributed across the Pacific islands."


The functional specialization of visual cortex emerges from training parallel pathways with self-supervised predictive learning

Neural Information Processing Systems

The visual system of mammals is comprised of parallel, hierarchical specialized pathways. Different pathways are specialized in so far as they use representations that are more suitable for supporting specific downstream behaviours. In particular, the clearest example is the specialization of the ventral (what) and dorsal (where) pathways of the visual cortex. These two pathways support behaviours related to visual recognition and movement, respectively. To-date, deep neural networks have mostly been used as models of the ventral, recognition pathway.


Butt breathing and 5 other ways animals stay warm in winter

Popular Science

Unlike its land cousin the box turtle, painted turtles do not have a hinged bottom shell that closes when the head is pulled in. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Winter has officially arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. With today's winter solstice, the days will start to get a little bit longer, but the cold will stick around. We humans typically handle the dipping temperatures by staying inside, sleeping more, and dressing in layers . Here are some unique ways that animals survive winter's deep freeze.



Six new bat species discovered in the Philippines

Popular Science

The archipelago's total bat tally now stands at 85 different flying mammals. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. A few weeks ago, conservationists announced the milestone discovery of the 1500th known bat species, . October's Bat Appreciation Month celebrations apparently aren't done yet. With only a few days remaining before Halloween, a research team has described another new species residing in the Philippines for the journal .


Why do bats spread so many diseases? They're evolutionary marvels.

Popular Science

Environment Animals Wildlife Bats Why do bats spread so many diseases? Survival of the fittest doesn't always mean smartest, fastest, or strongest. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. There are way more bats than you might think. Second only to rodents, bats make up around a fifth of all mammals, with over 1,500 species of winged nightflyers .