Wild Things: Yawning Chimps, Humpback Whales and More...
Leaping beetles, Pacific salmon, prehistoric mammals and other news updates in wildlife research
- By Arcynta Ali Childs, T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Laura Helmuth and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, June 2011
(Juan Cisneros)
Paleontologists in Brazil have found the 260-million-year-old skull of a sheep-size therapsid, a distant relative of mammals. They named it Tiarajudens eccentricus. What made it “eccentric” was it had a pair of five-inch teeth despite being a plant-eater. Perhaps the fangs were used to scare predators or fight rivals.
Additional Sources
"Ingroup-Outgroup Bias in Contagious Yawning by Chimpanzees Supports Link to Empathy," Matthew W. Campbell and Frans B. M. de Waal, PLoS ONE, April 2011
"Dental Occlusion in a 260-Million-Year-Old Therapsid with Saber Canines from the Permian of Brazil," Juan Carlos Cisneros et al., Science, March 25, 2011
"Wind-Powered Wheel Locomotion, Initiated by Leaping Somersaults, in Larvae of the Southeastern Beach Tiger Beetle (Cicindela dorsalis media)," Alan Harvey and Sarah Zukoff, PLoS ONE, March 23, 2011
"Impacts of Salmon on Riparian Plant Diversity," Morgan D. Hocking and John D. Reynolds, Science, March 25, 2011
"Dynamic Horizontal Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song at the Ocean Basin Scale," Ellen C. Garland et al., Current Biology, April 14, 2011
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