Our mammalian ancestors living 160 million years ago sometimes lived in pairs.

Drawing on empirical evidence and evolutionary theory, we argue that biological sex is most coherently defined as a binary classification of reproductive strategies rooted in anisogamy (the productio....

For decades, we have pictured the early mammals living on the shadows of the dinosaurs as solitary secretive animals. According to this view, more complex forms of social organisation evolved only after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Our research challenges this long-held assumption. While most early mammals were indeed solitary, about one quarter appear to have lived in female–male pairs. We reached this conclusion after compiling a high-quality database from thousands of scientific publications, which was then analysed using modern comparative statistical methods to reconstruct the social organisation of ancestral mammals. Our findings are consistent with fossil evidence indicating that early mammals and even ancestors of mammals were sonetimes social and pair-living.

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Animal architecture has received considerable attention as an extended phenotype that buffers organisms against environmental harshness. However, few studies have described animal architecture in a re...

Die besten Reiseerlebnisse von 60-Jahre-nach-Grzimek-durch-Australien – Hier erzählt der Verhaltensforscher Dr. Carsten Schradin über die Tierwelt Australiens. Ein Buch wird folgen.

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Dass sich die Umwelt zu unseren Ungunsten verwandelt, scheint für uns nicht zu verhindern zu sein - Klimaschutz wird viel zu weniger ernsthaft betrieben. Doch vielleicht sollten wir von der Afrikanisc...

What if harsh environments don’t stress animals at all? Research on South Africa’s striped mice shows survival can depend on conserving energy, not fighting back.

Schradin, C., Pillay, N. and Rimbach, R. (2026). Adaptation to harshness is fundamentally different from the adaptive stress response: Results from a 20-year-long case study in African striped mice…

Expression of agouti signalling protein in neurons in the medial preoptic area is increased by group housing and negatively associated with care, and overexpression of Agouti reduces care and enhances...

Climate change can alter when and how animals grow, breed, and migrate, but it is unclear whether this allows populations to persist. This global study shows that shifts in seasonal timing are key to ...

Post provided by Carsten Schradin. Science is about creating knowledge. Yet knowledge only becomes meaningful once it is shared and understood by others. Publishing your research in journals reache…

Abstract. Planet Earth and the biodiversity it supports are in crisis. The human impact on terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems and the hundreds

African striped mice are used to desert conditions but are showing dehydration as climate change heats up their environment.

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This is a research highlight for a paper introduces a Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD), which is an open, peer-reviewed resource that collects data on cooperative breeding across birds and ma...

Animals use home ranges for daily activities such as foraging, mating, and caring for young. Home ranges are often smaller than daily ranges — the areas used within a single day — though the two can b...

Animals in harsh environments rely on specialised adaptations. Two decades of field research on African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) in the Succulent Karoo semi-desert reveal a distinct ‘harshnes...

Highlighted Article: Osmolality is a biomarker for dehydration in mammals: data from 12 years show that striped mice have increased blood osmolality during the dry season, especially when food availab...

It doesn't take much imagination to realise that surviving in a desert requires a special kind of toughness. Each year, African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) living in the Succulent Karoo, South Af...

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Co-BreeD is the first updatable and open-source database dedicated to cooperative breeding. It enables continuous, non-binary measurement of cooperative breeding, transforming how we study breeding s....

The social behaviors of mice have been a focus of laboratory research for over a century. A new study trades the lab for the coastal shrublands of Sou…

Ultrasonic calls, too high for the human ear to detect, convey a wealth of information across the rodent’s territory.

Perrier et al. show that wild African striped mice (R. pumilio) use short-range ultrasonic signals for large-scale communication. By vocalizing at key territorial locations, they extend the functional...

Abstract. Responses of natural populations to climate change are driven by how multiple climatic and biotic factors affect survival and reproduction, and u