Animals

Animals

This spider makes its home in the burrows of extinct giant ground sloths

Caves made by extinct giant ground sloths make the perfect home for a newly discovered type of long-spinneret ground spider from Brazil.

Animals

This spider uses trapped fireflies to lure in more prey

Male fireflies trapped in the spider’s web flash femalelike lights, possibly luring in other flying males and allowing the arachnid to stock up on food.

Paleontology

This spiky fossil shows what early mollusks looked like

The fossil, plus 17 others from more than 500 million years ago, reveal that early mollusks were slug-like creatures with prickly armor.

Space

Scientists want to send endangered species’ cells to the moon

Climate change is threatening Earth’s biodiversity banks. It might be time to build a backup on the moon.

Animals

Nasty-tasting cane toads teach crocodiles a lifesaving lesson

After tasting nausea-inducing toad butts, crocodiles in Australia learned to avoid the poisonous live version. Crocodile deaths dropped by 95 percent.

Animals

A risk-tolerant immune system may enable house sparrows’ wanderlust

Birds that are willing to eat seed spiked with chicken poop have higher expression levels of a gut immunity gene, a new study finds.

Animals

A frog’s story of surviving a fungal pandemic offers hope for other species

Evolving immunity to the Bd fungus and a reintroduction project saved a California frog. The key to rescuing other species might be in the frog’s genes.

Animals

Hundreds of snake species get a new origin story

Elapoid snakes, including cobras, mambas and sea snakes, may have evolved in Asia, not Africa as many researchers once thought.

Animals

Why a small seabird dares to fly toward cyclones

Tracking data show that Desertas petrels often veer toward cyclones and follow in their wake, perhaps to catch prey drawn to the surface.

Animals

Pheromone fingers may help poison frogs mate

Specialized glands in the fingertips of some males may produce seductive chemical signals.

Animals

Static electricity may help butterflies and moths gather pollen on the fly

Electrostatically charged lepidopterans could draw pollen out of flowers without touching the blooms, computer simulations suggest.

Health & Medicine

Getting drugs into the brain is hard. Maybe a parasite can do the job

Researchers want to harness the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis to ferry drugs, but some question if the risks can be eliminated.