• Geology

The bones of ancient rhinos, elephants, and fish constrain when the Tibetan Plateau rose high enough to prevent migration, a move that forced animals to adapt to high-altitude conditions. Called the Rooftop of the World, the Tibetan Plateau perches high above the surrounding terrain, surpassed only by the Himalayan mountains that mark its southern border. But when and how the plateau reached its high elevation has remained unclear.

For one scientist and his team, tracing the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau now has a much-needed clue: vertebrate fossils — woolly rhinos, shovel-tusked elephants, and climbing perch, to be precise. Read more.

• Biology

Professor Kim Praebel, from the Arctic University of Norway, has found that Greenland sharks could have a lifespan of up to 400 years. Read more.

• Forensics
• Biology

Many people will have heard of the concept of measuring drugs in human hair to expose drug use over time, a technique that is becoming well known and well established in forensic and clinical circles. It is made possible by the fact the hair matrix is inert, so once a drug enters through the blood supply to the follicle, it remains at the same position as the hair grows. This property allows the pattern of drug use of an individual to be deciphered over weeks and months by analysing short segments of hair in sequence.

What is less well known is the application of the same technique to the whiskers of animals. Read more.

• Biology

Farzaneh Mansouri’s future data collectors are cruising around oceans worldwide, following blooms of productivity and accumulating decades of information — all in their earwax. Mansouri, an environmental scientist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, studies the wax “earplugs” built up over years in sealed whale ear canals. The earplugs, according to her findings, provide records of the animals’ movements and diets over the course of their long lives. Read more.