Wildlife stuff from the week 28/5 - 3/6/12

We all know what makes flowers attractive to humans - pretty colours, and maybe a nice smell. But what makes them attractive on a bee's scale?
It turns out, the surfaces of flower petals are made like high-grip surfaces - with lots of bumps and spikes, making them more favourable landing pads for hungry bees
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-hidden-features-crucial-bees.html

Unlike most reptiles, and like mammals, the tuatara can chew. This facilitates a broader diet, but, surprisingly, seems more common in ancestors contemporary with the dinosaurs
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-tuatara-iconic-zealand-reptile-mammals.html

Think every species in Europe's known and accounted for? Wrong!
New species are being discovered at a record rate - several hundred per year - and two thirds of them are discovered by amateur taxonomists
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-europe-rich-reservoir-unknown-species.html

Marine herbivores have a much larger effect on their underwater meadows than land herbivores. And who are the king of the marine grazers? Snails
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-grazing-snails-marine.html

Bird and human intelligence has evolved through retaining juvenile skull shapes
Modern (adult) birds have skull shapes more similar to the juvenile skulls of their dinosaur ancestors; a shape that permits a larger brain, and hence greater intellectual prowess.
Similarly, humans have skull shapes similar to juvenile chimpanzee skulls, with flattened faces and bulbous brain cases.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428675.200-birds-got-smart-by-becoming-big-babes.html

The meanophila genus of beetle is attracted to fire, and has adapted infra-red sensors to hunt hotspots down. Their method might be applicable in fire-alarms
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428676.200-zoologger-infraredsensing-beetles-born-in-fire.html

Brilliant pictures of the remarkable giraffe weevil of Madagascar
http://www.arkinspace.com/2012/05/remarkable-giraffe-weevil-of-madagascar.html