Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) are offering a new evolutionary explanation for the familiar scenario in which women bring a sweater into work, while their male counterparts feel comfortable wearing short sleeves in an air-conditioned office: A built-in evolutionary difference between the heat-sensing systems of the two sexes, related to the reproduction process and… Read More
Seahorses are considered particularly poor swimmers. However, despite being relatively slow, they are adept at preying on small, quick-moving animals. Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers have succeeded in characterizing the incredible preying capability of seahorses, discovering that they can move their heads up at the remarkable speed of 0.002 seconds. The rapid head movement is… Read More
Can mammals other than human beings demonstrate empathy for one another, engage in pro-social behavior, and help others in distress? New Tel Aviv University (TAU) research based on an animal model using rats found that, just as with humans, rats are also split into various groups with different indicators to the point that they come… Read More
Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) participated in a new international study proposing an amendment to the widely accepted theory on the extinction of animal species, moving the focus from the animal’s body size to its reproductive capacity. The researchers found gaps and incompatibilities between mammals and amphibians in the relation between body size and… Read More
A new Tel Aviv University study has revealed for the first time that bats “know” the speed of sound from birth. Unlike humans, who map the world in units of distance, bats map the world in units of time, the researchers say. The research was led by Professor Yossi Yovel, head of the Sagol School… Read More
Researchers from Tel Aviv University have discovered a species of ascidian, a marine animal, capable of regenerating all of its organs even after it has been broken into three fragments. The study was led by Professor Noa Shenkar, Professor Dorothee Huchon-Pupko, and Tal Gordon of TAU’s School of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty… Read More
A new Tel Aviv University study reveals a possible defense mechanism developed by fireflies for protection against bats that might prey on them. According to the study, fireflies produce strong ultrasonic sounds — soundwaves that the human ear, and more importantly the fireflies themselves, cannot detect. The researchers hypothesize that these sounds are meant for… Read More
Bats excel in acoustic perception and detect objects as tiny as mosquitoes using sound waves. Echolocation permits them to calculate the three-dimensional location of both small and large objects, perceiving their shape, size and texture. To this end, a bat’s brain processes various acoustic dimensions from the echoes returning from the object such as frequency,… Read More