The ancient crocodile Pakasuchus kapilimai once roamed the Middle Cretaceous of Tanzania. No larger than a housecat, the animal had a number of features unusual for crocodylians, including mammal-like teeth.

Emperor penguins practice monogamy during breeding season in order to protect their chicks. Until an emperor chick becomes independent of its parents, it must be protected in its colony from the harsh Antarctic elements and from predators by one parent, while the other parent travels back and forth to distant seas to feed itself and gather food for the chick - dual responsibilities that a single mother could not possibly fulfill on her own. Once emperor chicks become independent of their parents and thereby outgrow their need for cooperative parental caregiving, the overwhelming majority of emperor parents (about 85 percent) permanently part ways. Adult emperors practice serial monogamy, and usually form a new pair bond every breeding season.

For most bird species, regional warming is not as likely to influence population trends as precipitation changes.

The only bird which can fly backwards and forward without relying on the wind is the hummingbird.

Butterflies taste with their feet as their taste sensors are located there.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

Giraffes are one of the largest herbivores on earth, and have a profound impact on plant populations, vegetation structure, and ecosystem processes where they live. According to a new study by an international team of wildlife researchers from the University of Zürich, Penn State, and the Wild Nature Institute, giraffes that live close to densely populated towns have larger home ranges than giraffes that live far from towns. This suggests that the giraffes in human-impacted areas need to travel longer distances -- and expend more energy -- to obtain critical resources. The researchers also found that average rainfall impacts giraffe home ranges, which are smaller in areas with more rain.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Before the advent of DNA fingerprinting, scientists believed that about 90 percent of bird species were truly monogamous. But paternity testing suggests that the reverse is true: Scientists now believe that about 90 percent of bird species are socially monogamous, and that true monogamy among birds is the exception rather than the rule.

The Monte Iberia eleuth (Eleutherodactylus iberia) is the smallest living frog in the Northern Hemisphere, about 10 mm (0.39 in) in snout–vent length. This small eleutherodactylid frog endemic to eastern Cuba is the third-smallest frog (and tetrapod) in the world, following Paedophryne amauensis and the Brazilian gold frog. It was first discovered in 1993 on Mount Iberia (Holguín Province), from which it gets its name, and exists in only two small regions of Cuba. E. iberia is physically similar to E. limbatus and E. orientalis, but it is generally darker and the lines on its back do not extend as far to the rear. Because of the extreme miniaturization of the species, it possesses fewer teeth than related species and a laryngeal apparatus comparable in size to the head of a pin (resulting in a high-pitched call of a series of irregular chirps, comparable to other species of the genus). The female specimen which was the sole source of data thus far was found beside an egg, suggesting Eleutherodactylus iberia lays a single egg in each clutch and the parents are closely involved in raising the young (as is common with animals which birth few offspring a time). Much remains unknown about this small creature.

Loggerheads sea turtles have no interaction with their parents. Females bury eggs on the beach that hatch 50-60 days later. But the hatchlings seem to be programmed with an astonishing "Survival To Do List." Read more...

Some turtles can breathe through their rear end.

Scientists have discovered that predators like American kestrels can take the place of pesticides. Kestrels consume crop pests such as grasshoppers, rodents and European starlings. In cherry orchards, the scientists found, kestrels significantly reduced the number of birds that eat fruit. Results from a related study of blueberry fields are pending. Find out more...

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Bites, kicks, and stings from farm animals, bees, wasps, hornets, and dogs continue to represent the most danger to humans in US, according to a new study in Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. They found that from 2008-2015, there were 1,610 animal-related fatalities in the US, with the majority of deaths the result of encounters with nonvenomous animals (57 percent).

Unlike their relatives the crocodiles, alligators don't have salt glands and therefore can't survive full-time in salt water. They move back and forth between marine and freshwater ecosystems to rebalance their salt levels -- and to feed. The scientists discovered that the amount of time alligators spend in fresh or salt water depends on factors such as tide range and water temperature.

In turtles and other reptiles, whether an egg hatches male or female depends on the temperature of its nest.