Extinct mammal146;s venom bite

ALBERTA: Researchers in Canada last week unveiled the first fossil of an extinct mammal that seems to have delivered venom to its prey throu...

ALBERTA: Researchers in Canada last week unveiled the first fossil of an extinct mammal that seems to have delivered venom to its prey through its bite. The incomplete skull and jaws of a mouse-size animal called Bisonalveus Browni were found in central Alberta in 1991.

The animal, which lived about 60 million years ago, has no surviving descendants. Down the front of each upper canine tooth is a groove. The groove is reservoir-like near the gum8212;where, presumably, there was a source of poison8212;and narrows at the tooth8217;s point. It is open to the air; the poison did not travel down a hollow tube, like a snake8217;s fang.

Although the delivery of poison through bites is a major feature in reptile evolution, it is very rare in mammals. The Browni is the first extinct mammal with a 8216;8216;venom delivery system.8217;8217; Richard Fox, a professor of paleontology, the University of Alberta, and Craig Scott, a graduate student, describe their findings in the journal Nature.

Famous brains a weighty issue
HAMILTON Ontario: When modern scientists discovered that intellect could be traced to neural tissues, brains became precious curios. Pathologists collected the brains of gifted musicians, scientists and other notables the way 18th century literary enthusiasts held onto the hearts of poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Researchers at the Moscow Brain Institute measured dozens of the most brilliant brains. Vladimir Lenin, the leader of Russia8217;s Soviet revolution, had a brain weighing about 3 pounds, they determined. The brain of writer Ivan Turgenev weighed 4.4 pounds. That of satirist Anatole France was 2.1 pounds.

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Can8217;t better their signals
MONTANA: The black-capped chickadee has one of the most sophisticated signaling systems ever discovered among animals, according to researchers at the University of Montana. These small birds alter their calls to warn other chickadees both when a predator is moving rapidly and to convey how dangerous a stationary predator is based on its size, these scientists reported in Science.

When chickadees see flying raptors such as hawks and falcons, they produce a high-pitched 8216;8216;seet8217;8217; call so other birds can freeze and look inconspicuous. But if they spot a stationary or perched predator, they use a loud 8216;8216;chick-a-dee-dee-dee8217;8217; alarm in an effort to summon other birds into mobbing the potential attacker. The number of 8216;8216;dees8217;8217; they add conveys how serious the threat is. Chris Templeton and two others of the University of Washington, reached these conclusions after analyzing more than 5,000 chickadee alarm calls.

8212; Agencies