ScienceDaily: Strange Science News |
- Auroras on Mars
- Birds 'weigh' peanuts and choose heavier ones
- From chicken to dinosaur: Scientists experimentally 'reverse evolution' of perching toe
| Posted: 23 May 2015 07:21 AM PDT One day, when humans go to Mars, they might find that, occasionally, the Red Planet has green skies. NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has detected evidence of widespread auroras in Mars's northern hemisphere. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a global magnetic field that envelops the entire planet. Instead, Mars has umbrella-shaped magnetic fields that sprout out of the ground like mushrooms, here and there, but mainly in the southern hemisphere. These umbrellas are remnants of an ancient global field that decayed billions of years ago.  |
| Birds 'weigh' peanuts and choose heavier ones Posted: 22 May 2015 02:47 PM PDT Mexican Jays (Aphelocoma wollweberi) distinguish between heavier and lighter peanuts without opening the nuts. The birds do it by shaking the nuts in their beaks, which allows them to 'feel' nut heaviness and to listen to sounds produced by peanuts during handling.  |
| From chicken to dinosaur: Scientists experimentally 'reverse evolution' of perching toe Posted: 22 May 2015 02:45 PM PDT A unique adaptation in the foot of birds is the presence of a thumb-like opposable toe, which allows them to grasp and perch. However, in their dinosaur ancestors, this toe was small and non- opposable, and did not even touch the ground, resembling the dewclaws of dogs and cats. Remarkably, the embryonic development of birds provides a parallel of this evolutionary history: The toe starts out like their dinosaur ancestors, but then its base (the metatarsal) becomes twisted, making it opposable.  |
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