What’s new in Science this week: musical crocs, survivor peacocks and more

Musical crocs get a brain scan

We already know that animals can respond to music. Now we know that dinosaurs also would have enjoyed some Johannes Sebastian Bach. Scientists managed to squeeze the dinosaurs’ closest living relative, the crocodile, into an fMRI machine, and saw that its brain lights up in a way that’s very similar to how mammals’ brains do when exposed to music. This means, they say, that brains developed their basic neural structure quite early on in evolution, that cold-blooded animals can be put through an MRI, and that T-Rex may well have looked like a bejewelled hip-hop artist.

Peacock, the survivor

Peacocks aren’t just pretty; they’re pretty good at surviving, Bhopal-based scientists have found after they sequenced the entire peacock genome for the first time and compared it to other birds. The full set of 15,970 genes provided valuable information about how the peacock, which can live for up to 25 years, adapted better to environmental changes, by evolving genetic improvements in the early development of feathers, bones and muscles, and developed a stronger immune system. Understanding the genome better will help in preserving the species in case its population declines, and help Charles Darwin rest easier in his grave.

Bald and beautiful

The bald community can now thank those with Osteoporosis. A recent study has found that a drug used to treat weakness in bones can prove effective in stimulating hair growth. The currently available treatments for male pattern baldness are feeble and have side effects. But WAY-316606, an Osteoporosis treatment drug, is able to reduce the expression of SFRP1, a protein which inhibits the growth of hair tissue. This one’s for you, Larry David, a humorous man with weak bones and no hair.