Mammal

Like all really scary stories, this one started with a purely innocent being: a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. But when Dolly the sheep was born in 1996 -- making her the first mammal to be cloned from the cell of another animal -- it raised the very real specter that humans, too, might be duplicated in the foreseeable future. While there are no documented cases of human cloning so far, some experts think it's just a matter of time. A NUMBER / / Everyman Theatre / / 1727 N. Charles St. / / 410-752-2208 or everymantheatre.

Scientists in China have discovered that some of our earliest mammalian ancestors managed to rise above the mouse-like creatures that scurried beneath the dinosaurs in pursuit of bugs. Paleontologists from Nanjing University and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History say they have found the 165 million-year-old fossil remains of a 20-inch-long semi-aquatic carnivore that looks like a cross between a beaver and a river otter. The fossil preserved impressions of fur and a flat, partly scaled tail, as well as webbing between the hind toes.

Our two water lilies have bloomed many times, but one bloom disappeared after one day. This morning I pinched off an old bloom and saw a new bud rising up. Then this afternoon, the bud was gone! Is anything eating the buds / blooms or could the fish be cutting through the stem and the bud falling to the pond bottom? If the end of the bud stalk was ragged, the fish could be the culprits, particularly if they are larger fish. Large goldfish particularly will nibble on plants. Koi just like to dig in the pots.

Sorting through boxes of fossils collected 14 years ago, a Canadian doctoral student discovered the deadly, poisonous bite of a 60 million-year-old mammal the size of a mouse. The first "venom delivery apparatus" ever found in an extinct mammal was described last week in the research journal Nature by the student, Craig Scott, and his professor, vertebrate paleontologist Richard C. Fox of the University of Alberta, Edmonton. Its discovery may shed new light on the reason why mammals, unlike reptiles, seldom evolved to use poisonous bites for predation and protection.

For conservation biologists like Robbert Timmins, an early-morning walk through a Laotian fresh-food market is a quick way to survey the wildlife in the surrounding forest. "The Lao eat pretty much anything they find," he said. In February 1996, he spotted what appeared to be two dead squirrels amid the vegetables. "I picked them up and realized they were something pretty special," he said. Struck by their short, hairy tails, stubby legs, long faces and dark, mane-like neck fur, he bought them for a few cents.

Michigan researchers have restored hearing in deaf mammals for the first time, a feat that represents a major step toward the treatment of the 27 million Americans with acquired hearing loss. By inserting a corrective gene with a virus, the team induced the formation of new cochlear hair cells - key intermediates in converting sound waves into electrical impulses - in the ears of artificially deafened adult guinea pigs. They later demonstrated that the animals responded to sounds, according to the study published today in the journal Nature Medicine.

The nation's smallest fox lives on an island. So does the world's largest tortoise. And until 13,000 years ago, so did the world's smallest humans. Biologists say it's no coincidence. The forces of evolution create island creatures that are very different from their continental cousins. Animals that migrate to islands often shrink or grow over time in response to pressures from predators, food supplies and competition for mates. Known as the island rule, it's a concept that biologists developed in the 1960s.

It remains one of the great mysteries of marine science: Why do whales and other marine mammals strand themselves, swimming into shallow waters and washing ashore to die? Decades of research show that many of the strandings are caused by age-old maritime hazards: collisions with ships, infections from parasites, starvation and old age. But scientists have a new suspect these days: Navy sonar. Whales, dolphins and other marine mammals use echolocation - a kind of natural sonar -to detect predators, hunt for food, find mates, keep track of offspring and orient themselves in a dark and murky world.

Sure, 3-year-olds love to play. All the time, in fact. Take the 3-year-olds at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, for instance. It's always playtime for them. They, of course, are the spry young dolphins -- Maya, Spirit and Raven -- who reside at the aquarium's Marine Mammal Pavilion. Their fellow dolphin cohabitants, ages 12 to 32, love to play, as well. In celebration of the dolphins' love of play, the National Aquarium in Baltimore is launching Play!, its latest full-scale dolphin show, tomorrow.

WASHINGTON - Beauty may only be skin deep, but don't tell that to John Matthews and Paul Rhymer. As scrupulous as they are about external appearances - making sure that glass eyes have the right tint, that tongues are long and slimy enough, that fangs are correctly aligned - they also know that what's inside counts, whether it's foam, clay, old newspapers or auto body filler. "A coat can hide a lot" may be good fashion advice, but it's not good taxidermy; and taxidermists are what they are: Matthews and Rhymer have close to 50 years experience between them, the last several spent assembling the 274 wildlife specimens on display at the Smithsonian's new mammal hall.