Roots of Speech Found in Humming Fish

Limbless creatures look like earthworms

(NEWSER) - Scientists have unearthed a brand-new, weird-looking species of amphibians in northeastern India. The creatures, named chikilidae, live deep in the dirt and are limbless, reports Nature , which notes that they look more like worms than, say, frogs or salamanders. “The discovery adds a major branch to the amphibian tree of life,” says a member of the team, which dug for more than 1,000 man-hours. Researchers warned that creatures' habitat was being threatened by "rapid deforestation." The AP has more details. More»

Pretty boys get the girl first and still finish last

(NEWSER) - Pretty, colorful guppy guys may get all the ladies, but ugly guppies have “better sperm,” researchers concluded in a recent study. The group watched tropical guppies, and concluded that the colorful men had to “invest” in their beauty at the expense of slowing down their sperm. That's significant, because scientists believe guppy females mate with multiple males, and are ultimately impregnated by the fastest-swimming sperm. More»

Creature may breathe through bodily pores

(NEWSER) - Researchers in Hawaii have discovered several species of caterpillars that live underwater for weeks at at time. What's more remarkable is that insects don't have gills—or hold their breath. Other amphibious creatures that survive under water store oxygen in their lungs. These guys don't. "I couldn't believe it," says one scientist of the unusual find. More»

Study shows chickens can do basic math

(NEWSER) - No dumb clucks, young chickens appear capable of basic arithmetic, Discover reports. Scientists relied on two innate chick traits—an instinct to flock with the biggest group and an attachment to objects—to test the birds’ noggins. After hiding yellow balls of varying numbers behind screens, they released the chicks. The birds went immediately to the screen with the most balls. More»

(NEWSER) - Having boogied in 70 countries on all seven continents, Matt Harding concludes that “globalization is forcing our brains to evolve." Known via the Internet for dancing poorly with locals in far-flung locations, Harding argues that our brains were designed for social interaction within a small tribe—but we now inhabit a “single, impossibly vast social network," he writes on NPR. More»