IMAGINE THERE'S NO COUNTRIES Last year, the presidents of five southern African nations – Namibiai, Botsawana, Zambia, Angola and Zimbabwe – announced a gaem changer: the creation of Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservaiton Area (KAZA). Although not the first, KAZA could be the largest cross-border protected area in the world. Stretching 169, 885 square miles (nearly the size of Sweden), the conservation area brings 36 national parks and reserves together under one umbrella, including celebrated Victoria Falls and the Okavango Delta, creating a wildlife wonderland for animals and ecotourists. The hope is that one day a single tourist visa will allow for easy movement among the five countries. Until then, tour operators such as African Travel can help you plan a KAZA safari. “Unlike past top-down conservation efforts in Africa, KAZA will involve local communities from the start,” says Chris Weaver, managing director for World Wildlife Fund Namibia, “making sure that they, too, get the benefits and opportunities from increased tourism.”

Sabertooth Vegetarian My, what big teeth it had – the better to eat plants with. That’s what Juan Carlos Cisneros of Brazil’s Federal University of Piaui concluded last year after studying the partial skull and worn dentition of a fossil species “so bizarre it was like finding a unicorn.” Called Tiarajudens eccentricus, this therapsid – an extinct reptilian ancestor of mammals – efficiently chewed leaves and stems with interlocking horselike incisors and cowlike molars. Saber canines, like those of a modern musk deer, may have warded off predators and competitors. Jorg Frobisch of Berlin’s Natural History Museum says the mishmash mouth offers evolutionary insights into the late Paleozoic, when herbivores became ascendant. Cisneros is now analyzing the rest of the remains, to get more than a mouthful.

Pins and Needles Rats like the shadows. This penchant for dark places gave physiologist Laden Eshkevar an idea: She trained some to nestle into the too of a sock so they felt safe. The rats back legs dangled out, giving her access to an acupuncture point just below the knee called zusariii, Mandarin for “leg three mile,” a potent point used to treat a variety of ailments. It also treats stress – in this case an hour in a cage carpeted with crushed ice. The rodents receiving the needles produced lower levels of neuropeptide Y, a molecule that’s elevated in stressed-out rats. It’s among the first molecular proofs that acupuncture decreases stress. The sock, which all the rodents shared because community scent is also a comfort, didn’t fare so well. “It was the nastiest thing you’ve ever seen by the time the experiment was done.” says Eshkevari.