Animals
- Animals
Sea cucumbers harbor ‘zombie’ tissues that won’t die
Detached tissues from the sea cucumber's tube feet and feeding tentacles survived for more than three years, a find that could shape the study of aging.
- Paleontology
A textbook assumption about early land vertebrates may be wrong
Three species that lived about 308 million years ago challenge the idea that the first land vertebrates underwent amphibian-like metamorphosis.
- Health & Medicine
A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading
It’s just a matter of time before Sporothrix brasiliensis reaches the U.S. a CDC expert says.
- Science & Society
How real is the Cyclops in The Odyssey?
The iconic one-eyed monster coming to movie screens in July in The Odyssey might have more in common with tiny water critters than with humans.
- Animals
Songs prep the brains of finches yet to hatch for a hot world
Adult finches make "heat calls" as the temperature rises. Exposure to the song prepares their unhatched young's brains for the heat.
- Paleontology
Frozen squirrel poop hints at sights and smells of Ice Age ecosystems
DNA preserved in ancient scat reveals what Yukon ground squirrels ate and what animals shared their world.
- Animals
These birds clack their wing bones together to woo mates at night
During courtship, male scissor-tailed nightjars crack their wings together to make a sharp snapping sound. It's the result of colliding arm bones.
- Animals
Honeybees and shrimp are now getting vaccinated
A shrimp vaccine for commercial use could protect the environment and prove vaccines aren’t just for vertebrates.
- Animals
This tiny, blue octopus is new to science
The deep-sea octopus is fully mature despite fitting in a palm, a trait researchers think may help it reproduce faster than larger relatives.
- Animals
Bumblebees can solve problems on their own
With no training, bumblebees can work out how to use a ball like a ladder to feed on sugar from an out-of-reach flower.
- Animals
A secret to making a queen bee may lie in the wax around it
Queen-cell wax helps shape honeybee queen development, challenging the idea that royal jelly alone makes a queen, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Homing pigeons may use a surprising navigation mechanism
How animals navigate by Earth's magnetic field is hotly debated. New research in pigeons points to iron-laden liver immune cells as the compass.
