Shark Births Fatherless Baby

Felines chose domestic life 10,000 years ago

(NEWSER) - The origin of 600 million house cats has been traced to five matriarchal lines in the Mideast, where the first wildcats moved close to families some 10,000 years ago and earned their keep eating vermin, the New York Times reports. House cats share striking DNA similarities with wildcats in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. More»

Ethicists object to creating human-animal hybrid

(NEWSER) - Animal organ transplants in humans are now a step closer to reality: Scientists have successfully combined animal lungs with human blood, keeping a pig lung alive and functioning as the blood flowed through it. “The blood went into the lungs without oxygen and came out with oxygen, which is the exact function of the lungs," a researcher tells the Daily Telegraph . The first pig-human transplant could happen within five years. More»

DNA samples still exist for many extinct megafauna

(NEWSER) - Now that scientists have the woolly mammoth’s genome, the possibility of resurrecting the giant creatures—and other impressive species from our planet’s past—is a bit closer. Which megafauna would you bring back? New Scientist lists its favorites:

• Sabre-toothed tiger. This massive cat with huge fangs would surely be an impressive, and terrifying, sight.
• Short-faced bear. This behemoth is a third taller than the polar bear when standing upright.

Neanderthals, early humans could be next

(NEWSER) - Scientists have pieced together the nearly complete genome of the woolly mammoth from a hair strand found in Siberia, National Geographic reports. It's the first time scientists have decoded the nuclear DNA of an extinct species. The development makes it theoretically possible for the mammoths to roam the earth again after a 10,000-year rest, though current technical hurdles make that a nearly impossible goal. More»

Virginia aquarium blacktip got pregnant without need for shark sperm

(NEWSER) - A blacktip shark at a Virginia aquarium got pregnant despite not having been around a male of her kind for a decade, the Virginian-Pilot reports. Scientists have long suspected that sharks, like some smaller vertebrates, could reproduce asexually but this is only the second confirmed case. Tests showed the baby shark had genetic material purely from its mother. More»