Jake Buehler

Jake Buehler is a freelance science writer, covering natural history, wildlife conservation and Earth's splendid biodiversity, from salamanders to sequoias. He has a master's degree in zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

All Stories by Jake Buehler

  1. Health & Medicine

    Genes may shape how long we live more than once thought

    New research challenges the view that human life span depends mostly on lifestyle. Genes may account for half the factors that determine longevity.

  2. Animals

    Spider silk-making organs evolved due to a 400-million-year-old genetic oops

    An ancient ancestor of spiders and relatives doubled its genome about 400 million years ago, setting the stage for the evolution of spinnerets.

  3. Animals

    This fish may play a hole in its head like a drum

    The rockhead poacher is a little fish with a big pit in its head. The divot may be like a drum, making sound that rises above a chaotic, nearshore din.

  4. Animals

    How cheetah mummies could help bring the species back to Arabia

    Arabian cheetah mummies' DNA reveals that the long-lost population could be closely replaced by a cheetah population in northwestern Africa.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Botox could be used to fight snakebite

    A study on rabbits dosed with viper venom suggests that botulinum toxin may alleviate some effects of snakebite, possibly by dampening inflammation.

  6. Animals

    Ancient DNA rewrites the tale of when and how cats left Africa

    Cats were domesticated in North Africa, but spread to Europe only about 2,000 years ago. Earlier reports of “house” cats were wild cats.

  7. Animals

    Huge relatives of white sharks lived earlier than thought

    Lamniform sharks such as great whites and tiger sharks are famous for their size. The first such giants evolved 15 million years earlier than thought.

  8. Animals

    Cuddly koalas had a brutal, blade-toothed close cousin

    Ancient collagen preserved in the bones of extinct Australian mammals is revealing their evolutionary relationships, leading to some surprises.

  9. Animals

    Subway mosquitoes evolved millennia ago in ancient Mediterranean cities

    A variety of subway-dwelling mosquito seems like a modern artifact. But genomic analysis reveals the insect got its evolutionary start millennia ago.

  10. Animals

    What the longest woolly rhino horn tells us about the beasts’ biology

    A nearly 20,000-year-old woolly rhino horn reveals the extinct herbivores lived as long as modern-day rhinos, despite harsher Ice Age conditions.

  11. Animals

    Is camouflage better than warning colors? For insects, it depends

    The effectiveness of camouflage or warning colors for insect defense depends on conditions such as light levels and how many predators are around.

  12. Animals

    Octopus arms are adaptable but some are favored for particular jobs

    Octopuses are ambidextrous, a new study finds, but they favor their front arms for investigating surroundings and their back arms for locomotion.