90 results
- Animals
Fish beware: Bottlenosed dolphins may be able to pick up your heartbeat
Fish, sharks and platypuses are adept at sensing electrical signals living things give off. Bottlenosed dolphins make that list too, studies suggests.
- Life
Many frogs glow in blue light, and it may be a secret, eerie language
Biofluorescence is far more common across frog species than previously thought. The faint twilight glow could have a role in communication or mating.
- Plants
The fastest-evolving moss in the world may not adapt to climate change
The genus Takakia has the largest number of fast-evolving genes of any moss, a study finds. But it’s losing ground in the warming Himalayas.
- Paleontology
Living fast may have helped mammals like ‘ManBearPig’ dominate
Staying in the womb for a while but being born ready to rock may have helped post-dinosaur mammals take over the planet.
- Animals
Some wasps’ nests glow green under ultraviolet light
Some Asian paper wasps’ nests fluoresce so brilliantly that the glow is visible from up to 20 meters away.
- Animals
A blue-green glow adds to platypuses’ long list of bizarre features
The discovery of platypuses’ fluorescent fur has researchers wondering if the trait is more widespread among mammals than anyone has realized.
- Paleontology
Tiny eyes make a bizarre, ancient platypus-like reptile even weirder
An ancient oddball marine reptile had teeny-tiny eyes, suggesting it probably used senses other than sight to catch food.
- Life
Microbiologists took 12 years to grow a microbe tied to complex life’s origins
Years of lab work resulted in growing a type of archaea that might help scientists understand one of evolution’s giant leaps toward complexity.
- Animals
A jumping spider mom nurses her brood for weeks on milk
Even after spiderlings start hunting for themselves, they come to mom for milk.
- Animals
An echidna’s to-do list: Sleep. Eat. Dig up Australia.
Short-beaked echidna’s to-do list looks good for a continent losing other digging mammals.
- Animals
New books deliver double dose of venomous animal facts
In Venomous and The Sting of the Wild, researchers delve into the world of venomous creatures and the scientists who study them.
- Animals
Platypuses are full of mystery
With duck bills, webbed feet and venomous spikes, platypuses are one of the weirdest animals you’ll ever be lucky enough to see.
