Because animals like to stop and drink at such watering holes Jacques wondered whether ancient man may have settled nearby as well.
The team uncovered roughly 350 animal bones and 12500 flint tools or fragments as well as lots of evidence of burning.
See Photos of the Stonehenge Hunting ground The spring may have attracted originally large animals to it which would have aided hunting
At the other end of the country the Zumwalt Prairie is home to large populations of mammals birds and prey.
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/18689-high-heels-hurt-infographic. html>How High Heels Hurt (Infographic)</a p><p.>We found an increased risk of hindfoot pain
Peahens Ignore Most of Peacocks'Flashy Displays A male hoping to attract a female's attention typically needs something to help him stand out from the crowd
and the inhabitants of the animal kingdom are no exception with peacocks representing particularly showy lovers.
even though peacocks put on some of the most striking and theatrical courtship displays peahens almost always gazed at the lower part of the peacock's train of feathers particularly below the neck.
The females were primarily looking at the lower portion of the males'display said study author Jessica Yorzinski an evolutionary biologist at Purdue University in Lafayette Ind.
Top 10 Swingers of the Animal kingdom Yorzinski conducted the research as a doctoral candidate at the University of California Davis and Duke university.
Previously scientists suggested the colors of the feathers or the length of a male's train influenced a female's mating decisions.
Others thought peahens were drawn likely to the distinctive eyespots on a peacock's display of feathers.
and used the movement of the bird's pupils to determine where the peahen was looking.
when a predator was introduced into their environment in this case how the birds'eyes followed a taxidermic raccoon as it rolled past the enclosure on a skateboard.
Peahen gaze Yorzinski is unsure why peahens focus primarily on the lower part of a peacock's train.
She suggests the peacock's upper train may help females spot males across long distances since in India where peacocks are typically found thick vegetation could obscure everything except the top part of the males'display of feathers.
It's possible that when they're far away females use the upper train to find the males
Yorzinski intends to follow up this study by manipulating some of the male peacock's traits
and evaluate other peacocks'courting displays. The detailed findings of the new study were published online today (July 24) in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
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and creases is perfect for creating a hive of pumpkin wasps. PHOTOS: Autumn Colors The Haunted Pumpkin Garden will also display four other ginormous pumpkins which Villafane
He also approached the practice of hitting a baseball as a science even attending physics lectures at MIT to better understand the dynamics of swinging a bat.
He ended up bonding with his bat rather than with other people. The benefits of mental illness There's a large and growing body of research devoted to the link between successful high-achieving personalities and some degree of mental illness.
#Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Healthy Chick The oldest known wild bird in the United states has hatched a chick for the sixth year in a row.
The Laysan albatross named Wisdom thought to be at least 62 years old hatched a healthy-looking chick on Sunday (Feb 3) according to a statement from the U s. Department of the interior.
and Wildlife Service superintendent for the Papahä naumokuä kea Marine National monument which encompasses Midway Atoll NWR.
bands are attached to the legs of birds to help scientists track and study them. At the time she was estimated to be at least 5 years old.
This is the youngest these birds breed though they more typically mate at age 8 or 9 after an involved courtship lasting several years.
As Wisdom rewrites the record books she provides new insights into the remarkable biology of seabirds said Bruce Peterjohn head of the bird banding program at the U s. Geological Survey in the statement.
The bird has hatched likely 30 to 35 chicks in her long life although that number might be said higher Peterjohn in the release.
Laysan albatross have a wingspan of 6 feet (2 meters) and fly about 50000 miles a year as adults.
All but two of the 21 species of albatross are threatened with extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The tsunami killed an estimated 2000 adult albatrosses and about 110000 chicks in the wildlife refuge.
It is where humpbacks whales mate on their southern migration down the coast; a critical nesting area for hawksbills olive ridley sea turtles and green turtles;
and a seascape with relatively unexplored reefs. It is also one of the poorest regions in one of the world's poorest countries.
Drought pests a lack of compliance. The list is endless. But here's the news it's working.
The samples included drinking water and soil from the areas as well as swabs from birds'throats. Twenty samples tested positive for the H7n9 virus all from poultry markets in Shanghai.
Ten of the positive samples were from chickens three from pigeons and seven from the surrounding environment.
All three of the parent viruses are thought to have infected birds he said. Poultry markets may provide a sort of breeding ground for such reassortment to happen.
It provides a rather unnatural environment where a lot of these different bird species that may have different flu viruses get together
For instance pigeons have also been found to be infected with the virus Huang said. To control the outbreak Chinese health officials need a way to eliminate the infected bird population
and limit human exposure to the virus Pavia said. Currently the virus does not appear to make birds ill.
A diagnostic test for H7n9 would allow health officials to know where people are getting sick with the virus Pavia said.
Tallest animal: Giraffes are the tallest animals in the world. Males can grow up to 18 feet (5. 5 m) tall
and females can reach 14 feet (4. 3 m) tall. Their babies called calves are born 6 feet (1. 8 meters) tall
and insects such as beetles from the grapes a capability that some wineries already possess in other optical approaches.
and a plant that has smaller fruit is better able to fill each tomato with nutrients than a plant that bears a larger fruit Klee said.
At the time much of the land around Versailles was uncultivated allowing wild animals to flourish.
And the first vertebrate animals colonized land. Life in the Paleozoic The Paleozoic began with the Cambrian period 53 million years best known for ushering in an explosion of life On earth.
This Cambrian explosion included the evolution of arthropods (ancestors of today's insects and crustaceans) and chordates (animals with rudimentary spinal cords.
which is marked in the fossil record by an abundance of marine invertebrates. Perhaps the most famous of these invertebrates was the trilobite an armored arthropod that scuttled around the seafloor for about 270 million years before going extinct.
 After the Ordovician period came the Silurian period (443 million years ago to 416 million years ago)
which saw the spread of jawless fish throughout the seas. Mollusks and corals also thrived in the oceans
but the big news was what was happening on land: the first undisputed evidence of terrestrial life.
At the same time the first vertebrates were colonizing the land. These vertebrates were called tetrapods and they were widely diverse:
Their appearance ranged from lizardlike to snakelike and their size ranged from 4 inches (10 cm) long to 16 feet (5 meters) long according to a study released in 2009 in the Journal of Anatomy.
 As the tetrapods took over they had company: The Devonian period saw the rise of the first land-living arthropods including the earliest ancestors of spiders.
Paleozoic evolution Life continued its march in the late Paleozoic. The Carboniferous period which lasted from about 359 million years ago to 299 million years ago answered the question
Long before birds evolved tetrapods began laying eggs on land for the first time during this period allowing them to break away from an amphibious lifestyle.
and dragonflies ruled the skies. Tetrapods were becoming more specialized and two new groups of animals evolved.
The first were marine reptiles including lizards and snakes. The second were the archosaurs which would give rise to crocodiles dinosaurs and birds.
Most creepily this era is referred sometimes to as the Age of the Cockroaches because roaches'ancient ancestor (Archimylacris eggintoni) was found all across the globe during the Carboniferous.
The last period of the Paleozoic was the Permian period which began 299 million years ago and wrapped up 251 million years ago.
This period would end with the largest mass extinction ever: the Permian extinction. Before the Permian mass extinction though the warm seas teemed with life.
Coral reefs flourished providing shelter for fish and shelled creatures such as nautiloids and ammonoids. Modern conifers and ginkgo trees evolved on land.
Terrestrial vertebrates evolved to become herbivores taking advantage of the new plant life that had colonized the land.
Paleozoic geology and climate All this evolution took place against the backdrop of shifting continents and a changing climate.
or corn on the cob in foil is crucial if you don't know if the grill has been cleaned especially after marinades containing gluten have been used
Some options include a bowl of mixed berries baked beans corn on the cob or a gluten-free potato salad.
Some animal studies also suggested that H7n9 can spread between mammals. But so far the virus does not appear to spread efficiently there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission with H7n9 Rudge
The virus does not cause symptoms in birds so it can spread undetected within poultry populations Rudge
#Pesticides Contaminating Critters in California's National parks Pesticides from California's valley farms are collecting in the tissues of a singing treefrog that lives in pristine national parks including Yosemite
The chemicals include two fungicides never before found in wild frogs said Kelly Smalling lead study author and a U s. Geological Survey (USGS) research hydrologist.
Agricultural pesticides and fungicides have been detected more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the east in the rural Sierra nevada's snow water air and amphibians.
and toxic rat poison other studies have shown. Rare predator species such as spotted owls and fisher cats eat the poisoned mice and die.
The marijuana cultivators make trail systems to go in and put toxicants at every clearing said Mourad Gabriel a University of California Davis wildlife disease ecologist who studies the effects of rodenticides on rare species. A lot of predators will use any type of trail system
so you can imagine the potential risk to multiple different species. Catching frogs Scientists first noticed sharply declining frog populations in the Sierra nevada starting in the 1980s.
The problem is global. Amphibians everywhere are suffering steep population losses and strange deformities. Earlier studies by the USGS researchers found toxic pesticide concentrations in several frog species living in the national parks. In 2009 and 2010 the scientists resurveyed many of the same sites Smalling said.
Their species of choice was the bright-green Pacific chorus frog (also known as the treefrog. On spring nights males gather on the shores of ephemeral ponds and lakes to sing for mates.
That's when biologists headed out with flashlights to spot the frog's eyes and scooped up the silver-dollar-size suitors.
They're very focused on attracting a female so they don't pay much attention to what's around in their environment Smalling said. 40 Freaky Frog Photos Researchers collected Pacific chorus frogs on a north-south transect across Lassen volcanic national park Lake Tahoe Yosemite national park Stanislaus National Forest
and Giant sequoia National monument. They tested frog tissue water and sediment samples for more than 90 different pesticides and fungicides.
Complex causes The most common chemicals in the frogs were the agricultural fungicides pyraclostrobin and tebuconazole and the herbicide simazine.
DDE a byproduct of the pesticide DDT was also frequently found. This hammers home the point that even if you're in an area that looks wild and natural it can have very serious impacts from human activities 100 miles
or even more away said Brad Shaffer director of the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science who was involved not in the study.
The chemical concentrations were often higher in frog tissues than in the environment. The contaminants in the water and sediments were ridiculously low Smalling said.
The frogs may store up small exposures over time or there simply wasn't any pesticide
and how they interact with the amphibians Smalling said. While scientists agree that pesticides likely contribute to the dramatic decline in amphibians there are many reasons that frogs are disappearing.
The heavyweight is habitat destruction and degradation followed by an infectious disease called chytridiomycosis. In the Sierras introducing trout into mountain lakes also hit frogs hard
because the fish gobbled up tadpoles and tiny frogs. Climate change is another factor. The complexity is very hard to deal with Shaffer said.
These kinds of field surveys at least tell us what's out there in those habitats and
what's accumulating in at least some frogs and that gives you candidates to simplify the problem.
The cultivators spray pesticides and fertilizers and spread rat poison. Rodents that eat the poison live for two to seven days before keeling over giving predators plenty of time to capture their dazed prey.
UC Davis'Gabriel and his colleagues are seeing the effects of these chemicals on the fisher cat a carnivore being considered for Endangered Species Act listing.
Fisher cats nibble on everything from acorns to deer carcasses. The scientists found rat poison in 85 percent of fisher cat carcasses collected on public and tribal lands according to a study published in June in the journal Conservation Letters.
The animals are also passing the poison on to their kits when the babies nurse Gabriel said.
The UC Davis group is now testing barn owls which rely more heavily on rodents for food than fisher cats do.
Spotted owls have tested positive for rodenticides in Oregon and Gabriel said preliminary data indicates barn owls are snaring poison-laced mice.
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#Pig-Like Beast Leads the Way to Ancient Cave Drawings White-lipped peccaries may not be glamorous-looking
but like their truffle-sniffing cousins they sometimes turn up treasure. On the trail of the pig-like creatures in Brazil researchers made an unexpected and rare discovery:
cave drawings showing armadillos birds and reptiles etched into stone thousands of years ago. Archaeologists who examined the rock art say hunter-gatherers likely created the drawings between 4000 and 10000 years ago.
Photos of Amazing Cave Art  Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) made the find
The animals which travel long distances are considered environmental indicators of healthy forests. Since we often work in remote locations we sometimes make surprising discoveries in this case one that appears to be important for our understanding of human cultural history in the region Alexine Keuroghlian a researcher with WCS's Brazil program said in a statement.
In addition to human figures and geometric shapes many different kinds of animals were represented from big cats and armadillos to birds and reptiles but alas no peccaries.
The animal's range extends from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. It faces threats in the wild including deforestation and hunting.
While Homo sapiens evolved many vertebrates especially large mammals succumbed to the harsh climate conditions of this period.
One of the richest sources of information about life in the Pleistocene epoch can be found in the La Brea Tar pits in Los Angeles where remains of everything from insects to plant life to animals were preserved including a partial skeleton of a female human and a nearly complete woolly mammoth.
In addition to the woolly mammoth mammals such as saber-toothed cats (Smilodon) giant ground sloths (Megatherium) and mastodons roamed the Earth during this period.
Other mammals that thrived during this period include moonrats tenrecs (hedgehog-like creatures) and macrauchenia (similar to a llamas and camels.
Although many vertebrates became extinct during this period mammals that are familiar to us today including apes cattle deer rabbits kangaroos wallabies bears
Other than a few birds that were classified as dinosaurs most notably the Titanis there were no dinosaurs during the Pleistocene epoch.
Birds flourished during this period including members of the duck geese hawk and eagle families.
There were also some flightless birds such as ostriches rheas and moas. The flightless birds did not fare as well as they had to compete with mammals
and other creatures for limited supplies of food and water as a good portion of the water was frozen.
Crocodiles lizards turtles pythons and other reptiles also thrived during this period. As for vegetation it was limited fairly in many areas.
About 13000 years ago more than three-fourths of the large Ice age animals including woolly mammoths mastodons saber-toothed tigers
and giant bears died out. Â Scientists have debated for years over the cause of the extinction with both of the major hypotheses human overhunting
Recent research suggests that an extraterrestrial object possibly a comet about 3 miles wide may have exploded over southern Canada nearly wiping out an ancient Stone age culture as well as megafauna like mastodons and mammoths a
</p><p>From<a href=http://www. livescience. com/39165-worlds-priciest-coffee-test. html>coffee pooped out by Southeast Asian cats</a>to jellied chicken'
Eating the placenta known as placentophagy is common amongst some mammals such as goats which eat the afterbirth for its nutritional boost.
which are potent greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere and contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer.
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#Preventing an Elephant Eden from Becoming Paradise Lost (Op-Ed) Richard Carroll is vice president for Africa at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Washington D c. He contributed this article to Livescience's Expert Voices:
I first stepped out of the dense tropical rain forest of Central african republic's Dzanga-Sangha region into a 30-acre clearing with mineral rich soils known as the Village of the Elephants.
Instantly I was transported into prehistory with forest elephants of every size shape and color sucking the mineral salts out of the soil chasing one another rolling around in mud-pits
Elsewhere in the clearing known as the Dzanga Bai I was awed by bongo buffalo sitatunga and hundreds of birds.
This elephant Eden now a crown jewel in the three-nation Sangha Trinational World Heritage Site is under attack.
and slaughtered at least 26 elephants four of them calves collecting as much ivory as possible before disappearing to most likely begin preparing their next attack.
What's left of the elephants lies as silent witness to a global crisis. A handful of elephants have returned
since but locals describe the area as an elephant mortuary. Elephant Images: The Biggest Beasts On land The threat to stability posed by incidents such as the one at Dzanga Bai is being highlighted today (May 29) in a briefing before the United nations Security council.
In a report to the world's highest international security body U n. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon says Poaching
Saving the elephants of Dzanga Bai is critical. Central african republic must act quickly to secure the area
These elephants travel far and carry no passports as they cross international borders throughout the Sangha Trinational.
Forest elephant populations have plummeted 62 percent over the past 10 years driven largely by demand from newly rich individuals in China and Thailand.
They also pay to visit the gorillas and to walk in the forest with Ba'Aka pygmies collecting medicinal herbs.
and guide who helped me survey the plants and animals of this area when I first arrived over 30 years ago.
and the forests were largely empty of species like elephant. But with the help of Mekema and his people the government of CAR was able to protect Dzanga Sangha
Despite its discovery only recently the underwater landscape has just a few years to be explored before wood-burrowing marine animals destroy the ancient forest. 8 of the World's Most Endangered Places Closely guarded secret Raines was talking with a friend who owned a dive shop
The forest had become an artificial reef attracting fish crustaceans sea anemones and other underwater life burrowing between the roots of dislodged stumps.
#Puzzling Plumage: Fractals Reveal Birds'Health For birds fractals are a turn on. A new study found that the complexity of fractal patterns on a bird's chest communicates the animal's fitness to potential mates.
Scientists studied male and female red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) which both display complicated black-and-white patterns of plumage on their chests.
The size shape and complexity of these patterns can be quantified by what's known as fractal dimension (FD).
Fractals are self-similar repeating patterns that show the same structure when zoomed in and out.
and apparently the plumage of red-legged partridges. 5 Seriously Mind-boggling Math Facts In a new study scientists found that the healthier a bird is the more fractal-like its plumage becomes.
We have shown that fractal geometry can reveal biologically meaningful information encoded in a complex plumage trait:
or how robust and healthy the birds'immune systems (the body system that fights off foreign invaders) were.
The scientists found that fractal dimension predicted immune responsiveness meaning that partridges with more complex fractals on their plumage tended to have stronger immune systems.
The scientists also studied the relationship between bird health and fractals by restricting the diets of 33 male
This resulted in the first set of birds weighing around 13 percent less than the control group.
and found the complexity of fractals was reduced significantly on the birds whose food had been restricted. After losing weight the same birds would grow in plumage with a lower fractal dimension than they had before while the birds
whose weight stayed steady didn't show any change in FD. Overall the study found that birds'fractals communicated a lot about the health of individuals
which could provide a valuable way for red-legged partridges to judge potential mates. Our work justifies further studies on fractal perception in animals depending on their visual processing abilities the researchers wrote.
Some studies on humans have found that people prefer art both abstract and representative work with more fractals and that the FD rating subconsciously influences our perception of beauty
Nonhuman animals may similarly prefer traits with higher (or lower) FDS particularly if these advertise a better individual quality as we report here.
The creamy blue-and-brown speckled eggs splashed like a toddler's art project vary among birds
Quail camouflage Sitting at the bottom of the food chain with a spot on just about every predator's dinner menu quail
What the spots seem to be doing it making a predator think an egg is different from an egg shape he said.
In the wild there is some evidence that birds are often less successful with their first clutch of eggs.
Scientists think birds use patterning on eggs for camouflage but the darker colors may also help strengthen weak spots
blue-green biliverdin and red-brown protoporphyrin which are both breakdown products of hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein found in the red blood cells of all vertebrates.
#Rare Baby African Monkey Makes Photo Debut A baby kipunji one of the rarest species of African monkey sticks close to its mother in a new photo that was released today (June 5) by wildlife conservationists.
Kipunji also known as the highland mangabey are considered a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
A WCS census of the monkey species has revealed that only 1100 are known to exist in the wild.
In 2006 genetic analyses revealed it to be an entirely new primate genus the first new African monkey species since 1984.
and two years after they were discovered the WCS helped create a protected forest on Mount Rungwe to promote the conservation of these rare primates.
The baby kipunji's mother is one of the monkeys being studied by the WCS. This dominant female nicknamed Trike is believed to have lost a hand and lower arm in a snare accident before the creation of the protected forest in the southern highlands of Tanzania.
Before we managed the forest there was illegal hunting going on including snaring WCS spokesman Stephen Sautner told Livescience.
Kipunji have two main characteristics that help distinguish it from other monkey species: A wide crest of hair on the tip of its head and a unique call that has been described by researchers as a honk-bark.
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Endangered Chicks Emerge from Nest This could be the first and last high-definition video of a Spoon-billed sandpiper chick emerging from its nest.
One of the world's most critically endangered species the 6-inch-tall (15 centimeters) bird faces extinction within 10 years according to a statement from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which released the video.
The Cornell Lab sent videographer Gerrit Vyn to Chukotka Russia to document the sandpipers'sounds
The Spoon-billed sandpiper is one of the most remarkable little birds On earth and it may go extinct before most people even realize it was here John Fitzpatrick executive director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said in the statement.
and governments to these amazing birds and galvanize an international conservation effort. First moments of life One video captures the first moments of life as the tiny fluffy brown
-and-white chicks stumble out of the nest pecking for food. They feed themselves from day one Vyn said in the video.
Vyn filmed the only nest with eggs in 2011: The other 20 eggs were bred in captivity
Much of the little bird's decline is due to habitat loss from development and subsistence hunting along its migratory path
birds and a primary stopping site for Spoon-billed sandpipers. And shorebirds are a food source for people living along the coastal mudflats of Myanmar
and other nearby countries the Cornell Lab said in a statement Documenting a disappearing species Common foraging behaviors here on the breeding grounds are surprisingly different from the way they feed on the wintering grounds according to the Cornell lab. On the breeding grounds the birds feed on insects
especially midges mosquitoes flies beetles and spiders as well as grass seeds and berries. On the wintering grounds
and during migration they eat marine invertebrates including polychaete worms and shrimp. Another video by Vyn shows a mated Spoon-billed sandpiper pair foraging along the edge of a snowmelt pond in Chukotka.
Vyn also captured rarely seen courtship behavior between adult Spoon-billed sandpipers. This video shot during the first few days of a pair's seasonal courtship includes an attempted copulation and a nest scrape display.
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper population in Russian has been tracked since 1977 when a survey estimated 2500 breeding pairs in Chukotka.
By 2003 the population had dropped to around 500 pairs. In 2008 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature listed the species as critically endangered on its Red List.
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