askscience

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
What cues do dogs' brains use to distinguish "inside" from "outside"? If I bring my dogs to a friend's new house I can trust them not to pee in the hallways but they also know they're allowed to pee all over the yard.	1
Why do my dogs lick their lips while they are scratching their elbows? Is it a stress response? Or a reflex? They stop licking their lips when I scratch their elbows for them.	1
Compared to purely marine animals, are amphibious animals more or less likely to go disappear in mass extinction periods like the K-T Event? What about amphibious animals compared to purely terrestrial ones?	1
If a millipede/centipede A has double the legs of myriapod B, does that mean myriapod A has to devote proportionately double the brain space to walking? Broadly, how much more neurologically expensive is each pair of legs to any animal?	1
Is a railgun chamber sealed up tight like a traditional firearm? If it is, does negative atmospheric pressure develop behind the projectile as it moves down the barrel? If it does, does it represent a problem or velocity limitation that has to be dealt with somehow? If so, how?	1
In most species with active mate choice one sex is choosy and the other competes for their choice, while mutual mate choice is rarer. What common factors lead to both sexes being choosy?	1
If I didn't have any field observations, and all I had were the skeletons of a bearded vulture, a condor, a griffon vulture or a Marabou stork, would I be able to tell they were all scavengers?	1
If we never had any live observations or living specimens, would we be able to tell that marabou storks and turkey vulture were scavengers based solely on skeletal morphology? What are the diagnostic features of a flying scavenger?	1
Does poop decay really slowly in really arid deserts because there's fewer detritivores than wetter places, or is it about the same as temperate climates? What breaks it down primarily? Flies? Dung beetles? Wind? Solar radiation?	1
Why are placental mammals seemingly so much more widspread and diverse than marsupials? Is this a geographic accident or do placentals consistently outcompete marsupials in most niches?	1

« < > »