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Categories: Engineering: Biometric, Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds

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A new study has discovered the oldest known cavities found in a mammal, the likely result of a diet that included eating fruit.

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The conditions under which early members of the genus Homo dispersed outside Africa were analysed on a broader scale, across Europe during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. The model is based on the comparison of functional trait distribution of large herbivorous mammals in sites with archaeological or fossil evidence of human presence and in sites, which lack evidence of human presence.

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Bird dispersal movements are thought to depend on complex demographic and genetic factors. Researchers show that there may be a simpler explanation: bird dispersal distances depend on the morphology and flight efficiency of the wings. Bird populations and the capacity of species to move across the landscape can determine which species will thrive and which may become endangered.

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The rise and fall of Earth's land surface over the last three million years shaped the evolution of birds and mammals, a new study has found, with new species evolving at higher rates where the land has risen most.

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Scientists have discovered three new species of ancient creatures from the dawn of modern mammals that hint at rapid evolution immediately after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

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A new study has revealed that over the last 20,000 to 50,000 years, birds have undergone a major extinction event, inflicted chiefly by humans, which caused the disappearance of about 10 to 20 percent of all avian species. According to the researchers, the vast majority of the extinct species shared several features: they were large, they lived on islands, and many of them were flightless.

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Research on a newly discovered bird fossil found that a unique brain shape may be why the ancestors of living birds survived the mass extinction that claimed all other known dinosaurs.

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Newly-hatched pterosaurs may have been able to fly but their flying abilities may have been different from adult pterosaurs, according to a new study. Researchers found that hatchling humerus bones were stronger than those of many adult pterosaurs, indicating that they would have been strong enough for flight.

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New findings from zoologists working with birds in Southeast Asia are shining fresh light on the connections between animal behaviour, geology, and evolution - underlining that species can diversify surprisingly quickly under certain conditions. Sulawesi Babblers (Pellorneum celebense), shy birds that live in the undergrowth on Indonesian islands, have begun to diverge quite significantly despite being separated geographically for mere tens of thousands of years.

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The Glasgow Face Matching Test has been updated to find super-recognizers who can help prevent errors caused by face recognition software.

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Engineers have developed an integrated circuit that can carry out complicated artificial-intelligence operations like face, voice and gesture recognition and cardiac monitoring. Powered by either a tiny battery or a solar panel, it processes data at the edge and can be configured for use in just about any type of application.

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Ancient chickens lived significantly longer than their modern equivalents because they were seen as sacred -- not food -- archaeologists have found.

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Researchers have developed a plasmofluidic chip that can perform PCR in only about 8 minutes, which could speed diagnosis during current and future pandemics.

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Free from human disturbance for a century, an inland island in Central America has nevertheless lost more than 25% of its native bird species since its creation as part of the Panama Canal's construction, and scientists say the losses continue.

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If paleontologists had a wish list, it would almost certainly include insights into two particular phenomena: how dinosaurs interacted with each other and how they began to fly.

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Researchers have moved closer toward this goal by developing a nanopore sequencing platform that, for the first time, can detect the presence of nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA and RNA.

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New research shows 3D printers can be identified by thermodynamic properties, which could could aid intellectual property, security.

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Careful criminals usually clean a scene, wiping away visible blood and fingerprints. However, prints made with trace amounts of blood, invisible to the naked eye, could remain. Dyes can detect these hidden prints, but the dyes don't work well on certain surfaces. Now, researchers have developed a fluorescent polymer that binds to blood in a fingerprint -- without damaging any DNA also on the surface -- to create high-contrast images.

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New research looked at a newly discovered, endangered songbird located only in South America -- the Iberá Seedeater -- and found that this bird followed a very rare evolutionary path to come into existence at a much faster pace than the grand majority of species.

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Ancient Egyptians mummified cats, dogs, ibises and other animals, but closer to home in the South American Atacama desert, parrot mummies reveal that between 1100 and 1450 CE, trade from other areas brought parrots and macaws to oasis communities, according to an international and interdisciplinary team.