Author: Miss Cellania / Source: Neatorama This is Lisowicia bojani, a newly-discovered dicynodont that lived 237 million years ago, in the Triassic period, when dinosaurs first rose to dominance. But it’s not a dinosaur, or even a reptile. It’s an early relative of mammals. The popular notion of

Author: Cassie Martin / Source: Science News for Students Creatures deal with toxic chemicals in their environments in many ways. One strategy: Destroy them with chemical-busting proteins. Many mammals have a gene that helps them break down certain toxic chemicals. But sea-dwelling mammals have a

Author: Cassie Martin / Source: Science News A gene that helps mammals break down certain toxic chemicals appears to be faulty in marine mammals — potentially leaving manatees, dolphins and other warm-blooded water dwellers more sensitive to dangerous pesticides. The gene, PON1, carries

Author: Cara Giaimo / Source: Atlas Obscura In the Kunming Institute of Zoology, in Yunnan, China, there live about 2,000 long-nosed, inquisitive-faced tree shrews. Tree shrews make good animal models for studying human diseases: They’re more genetically similar to us than, say, a mouse, but

Author: Miss Cellania / Source: Neatorama New Zealand lacked mammalian land predators for millions of years, and was a marvel of biodiversity up until the arrival of man, who introduced rats and other new species. Stephens Island lies between the two big islands of New Zealand, and became a