First teeth evolved from fish scales

Fish that lived long before the dinosaurs featured the world's first known teeth.  The findings suggest all teeth originally evolved from fish scales.

Recent sapiens fossil shows neanderthal progenitor

A jawbone unearthed in Romania of a man who lived about 40,000 years ago, boasts the most Neanderthal ancestry ever seen in a member of our species.  The finding also indicates that interbreeding with Neanderthals occurred much more recently than previously known.  One of the very first modern humans known from Europe had a Neanderthal ancestor just four to six generations back in his family tree.  He carries more Neanderthal DNA than any other present-day or ancient modern human seen to date.

General relativity explains the Schrödinger's cat paradox

General relativity theory can explain why one of the spooky properties of quantum mechanics works at the subatomic scale, but not in everyday life.

[Blogger Note: No it doesn't.  The answer lies in the distinction between potential perception and an actual instance of perceiving.]

Egg or sperm?

A gene that controls whether germ cells eventually become sperm or eggs has been identified.

Life was difficult for dinosaurs in the tropics

Raging fires, droughts, food shortages and extreme climate change help to explain why most dinosaurs failed to populate the tropics for more than 30 million years after these iconic prehistoric animals first emerged.

Chimps soak up alcohol using leaves as sponges

Wild chimpanzees in the west African country of Guinea discovered a free treat in raffia palms tapped by local people to extract a sweet, milky sap which then ferments into an alcoholic drink.  The apes scrunched up leaves in their mouths, moulding them into spongy pads that they then dipped into the sap-gathering container, which villagers attach to the tree near its crown.

Red blood cells, collagen fibres found in poorly preserved, 75-million-year-old dinosaur bones

Scientists say they have discovered what appear to be red blood cells and collagen fibres in dinosaur bones, a find that may boost prospects of prising organic remains from a much wider range of fossils.

Chimps understand the concept of cooking

Chimpanzees and humans share some of the basic brain skills needed for cooking, a finding that may explain a turning point in the story of humankind.  Experiments at a chimp sanctuary suggest a common ancestor imparted these cognitive abilities to apes and humans alike.

(What the experiments actually demonstrate is the chimps' ability to reason how to satisfy desire in a novel situation.)

Bird cries wolf to fool a predator

The little brown thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla) protects its young by using vocal mimicry to trick its predator into thinking that they themselves are under attack.  It does this by mimicking a chorus of other species' alarm calls that are normally used to warn of an approaching hawk.

First 'virgin birth' fish found in the wild

An endangered species of fish can produce offspring without mating.  The discovery is the first-known example of the asexual reproductive process known as parthenogenesis to have been uncovered in the wild.