We can learn a lot about extinct giant South American mammals from 30-40 million years ago thanks the random process of fossilization.    Even their ancient 'mega-dung' has a tale to tell scientists and we can thank the unheralded dung beetle.

The dung beetle has fallen on hard times. Though once worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians its status has now slipped to being the butt of scatological jokes.

Speciation, where different populations of the same species split into separate species, is central to understanding evolution.

As would be expected in a complex process like evolution, it's difficult to observe in action.  A new study in American Naturalist says they have captured two populations of monarch flycatcher birds just as they arrive at that 'evolutionary crossroads' of speciation - and it involves a change in a single gene.

Dogs aren't the only animals that bark, they are just the most famous. Deer, monkeys and even birds also bark but what makes dogs different is a subject of interest in a new evolutionary biology study.

In a recent Behavioural Processes paper, researchers have provided scientific literature with what they say is the first consistent, functional and acoustically precise definition of this household animal sound.

Kathryn Lord, a graduate student in organismic and evolutionary biology at University of Massachusetts Amherst, says, “We suggest an alternative hypothesis to one that many biologists seem to accept lately, which seeks to explain dog barking in human-centric terms and define it as an internally motivated vocalization strategy.”

As teenagers' drive for peer approval begins to eclipse their family affiliations, things change in their brains - literally.    Brain scans of teens sizing each other up reveal an emotion circuit activating more in girls as they grow older - but not in boys.

So that urban legend about girls maturing faster than boys is true, if by faster maturity we mean becoming overly emotional drama queens.  

A new study says emotion circuitry diverges in the male and female brain during a developmental stage in which girls are at increased risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders.

It is known that memory begins during the prenatal period but little has been discovered about the exact timing or for how long memory lasts. A new study done in Holland has found fetal short-term memory in babies at 30 weeks in the womb. The study provides insights into fetal development and may help address and prevent abnormalities, say researchers at Maastricht University Medical Centre and the University Medical Centre St. Radboud who published their results in Child Development.

A new study says both the tiger stripes and a subsurface ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus are the result of the moon's unusual chemical composition and not a hot core, as previously believed.

shedding light on the evolution of planets and guiding future space exploration.

Dr Dave Stegman, a Centenary Research Fellow in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne, led the study and says that part of the intrigue with Enceladus is that it was once presumed to be a lifeless, frozen ice ball until a water vapour plume was seen erupting from its surface in 2006.