I take so many notes that by the end of the year, I have a few hundred pages of them.

Some of those notes are questions that I’ve read about, or small curiosities that have occurred to me as I read. I try to frame those curiosities as questions, most of which I spent at least few minutes trying to answer. (This is a great meta-reading strategy: As you read, ask questions of yourself to test your understanding.)

To celebrate the last SearchResearch Challenge of 2016, I’ve pulled together a few of the questions I had written down in my notes during the year. I was able to answer these fairly quickly, so this is more of a fun Challenge than a difficult one, but I hope you’ll enjoy these Challenges (and the sometimes strikingly strange answers to these questions)…

1. We see birds all of the time, and I know they can hear, but I can’t help but wonder: Where are their ears? What does the ear of an owl or crow look like?

2. As you know, mammal embryos depend on a placenta for nutrition via their mother until birth. Egg-laying animals provide a yolk for their embryos for feeding until hatching. But I’ve heard about a few other ways in which some animal embryos get nutrition while still in utero that’s from a surprising source. What are three other strategies for embryos to get nutrients while still in their mother’s uterus?

3. Speaking of giving birth, I read that virgin births are fairly common in certain kinds of animals. Can you find which vertebrates are able to give birth without having to bother with all of the process of finding and joining with a mate?

Let us know what you find and how you found it. (I’ll caution you ahead of time that these are pretty interesting Challenges. I spent waaaay too much time reading into the finer aspects of biology. This is fascinating stuff!)

As always, if you don’t have time to do all three, just let us know what you found on just one. Collectively, we’ll all learn from everyone else’s search process and results.

Search on!