Umbra

Woman's persistence pays off in regenerated fingertip.

Charles Darwin's ecological experiment on Ascension isle. [Via]

Brainless slime mould makes decisions like humans. [Via]

Jaroslav Šerých, a Czech illustrator, has done some fantastic illustrations for books of fairy tales from Japan, Indonesia and other cultures. [Via]

How Evolution Gave Us The Human Edge.

Tarzan Skills: How to Swim, Dive, Climb, and Swing Like the Lord of the Apes.

Or We Will All Hang Separately.

K-9 PTSD? Some Vets Say Dogs Stressed By War, Too.

Monkeys hate flying squirrels, report monkey-annoyance experts. "Japanese macaques will completely flip out in when presented with a flying squirrel, a new study in monkey-antagonism has found. The research could pave the way for advanced methods of enraging monkeys." [Via]

Translating Stories of Life Forms Etched in Stone. "Many of the creatures found in the fossil record from the time immediately preceding the Cambrian are so unlike modern forms that deciphering what they are and how they lived continues to challenge paleontologists."

Arcimboldo Riding a Composite Camel. [Via]

New Hypothesis for Human Evolution and Human Nature. "It's no secret to any dog-lover or cat-lover that humans have a special connection with animals. But in a new journal article and forthcoming book, paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman of Penn State University argues that this human-animal connection goes well beyond simple affection. Shipman proposes that the interdependency of ancestral humans with other animal species — 'the animal connection' — played a crucial and beneficial role in human evolution over the last 2.6 million years."

Maori Eels: New Zealand's Maori defend an extraordinary creature -- and themselves.

Wild Cat Found Mimicking Monkey Calls; Predatory Trickery Documented for the First Time in Wild Felids in Americas.

Is Jousting the Next Extreme Sport?

Monkeys trained as battlefield killers in Afghanistan. Clearly this development effectively ends the war.

Party Gorilla.

Back Yard in Motion. Reinventing the wheel - and then some.

"The story of my unjust arrest: I was thrown into an unmarked van, strangled, punched, and manhandled." Activist Lacy MacAuley gives a detailed and harrowing description of her arrest at the G20 in Toronto.