Vampire Bats Lose Bitter Taste

Once though essential to every animal species as a caution against ingesting toxins, three species of vampire bats have significantly fewer taste receptors for bitter compounds due to their evolutionary specialization for an all-blood diet.

Blue Blood Survives Freezing

Researchers have found a specialized blue pigment called hemocyanin in the blood of the Antarctic octopus (Pareledone charcoti) that is copper-based instead of the more common iron-based hemoglobin, allowing the ions to bind with oxygen and the animals to survive in sub-freezing waters of -1.9 degrees Celsius.

Oldest Known Blood Cells

Examination of the wounds of the 5300-year-old mummified remains known as "Ötzi" by an advanced nano-sized probe have revealed individual red blood cells, the oldest human blood sample known, and have proven the man died quickly from the traces of fibrin in the wound.

Paper Test for Blood Type

Researchers have developed a litmus-type paper "dipstick" indicator impregnated with blood antibodies that can accurately determine blood type at a cost of only a few cents.

Mammoth Blood Protein

Researchers have resequenced blood proteins from the DNA extinct mammoths tens of thousands of years old, preserved in the Siberian permafrost, to reveal a genetic mutation allowing their hemoglobin to carry oxygen in their blood even at low temperatures.