vertebrates

6 Stories

UK Set to Acknowledge These Creatures Have Feelings

Crab, octopus, and other cephalopods, decapods, vertebrates to be classified as sentient beings

(Newser) - A bill designating octopus, lobster, crab, and other animals as sentient beings capable of experiencing feelings and sensations including pain and distress, now moving through the UK parliament , could transform how such animals are treated in the country. The bill, which would see the creation of an Animal Sentience Committee...

Naked Mole Rats Can Do What No Other Vertebrate Can

Oxygen deprivation? Bring it

(Newser) - Scientists already know enough about naked mole rats to put them in the "strange" category. The hairless ground-dwelling wonders are notable for being cold-blooded mammals that are practically immune to cancer and far outlive other rodents, reports Science Daily . Now scientists say they've observed the creatures surviving without...

Montana Fossil Reveals Ancient Sea Creature

A long-gone inland sea still has secrets to give up

(Newser) - A fossil found by a Montana elk hunter nearly seven years ago has led to the discovery of a new species of prehistoric sea creature that lived about 70 million years ago in an inland sea that flowed east of the Rockies, the AP reports. The new elasmosaur species is...

Trillions of Glow-in-the-Dark Fanged Fish Live in Ocean

Bristlemouth is most numerous vertebrate on Earth, though it remains mysterious

(Newser) - What's believed to be the most numerous vertebrate on Earth is also one you've probably never heard of or seen—yet scientists say the bristlefish, a fanged creature that glows in the dark and lives deep down in the ocean, likely numbers in the thousands of trillions, reports...

When Exploring, Ants March to the Left, to the Left

Scientists are exploring this 'behavioral lateralization'

(Newser) - Roughly nine in 10 humans are right-handed, an example of "brain lateralization" that's pretty common among vertebrates—and now apparently invertebrates. Researchers in the UK are finding that even ants—which are invertebrates, meaning they have exoskeletons—carry an innate directional bias, in their case almost always turning...

Your Jaw May Come From This Ancient Fish

Minnow-sized creature had something akin to one 500M years ago

(Newser) - Introducing Metaspriggina, a minnow-sized fish that lived about 500 million years ago and appears to occupy a crucial branch of your family tree. Scientists say the creature might just be the ancestor of nearly all vertebrates, reports LiveScience . The revelation comes after study of dozens of remarkably well-preserved Metaspriggina fossils...

6 Stories