Animals
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AnimalsBumphead parrot fish declare their arrival with a crunch
Months of swimming with the coral-biter bumpheads exposes the animal’s extreme digestion and also a conservation dilemma.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsSeeing past the jellyfish sting
Jellies don’t get nearly as much love as their cousins, the corals, but they deserve credit for providing homes to some creatures, dinner to others and more. They’re an integral part of the oceans.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsThese lizards may be able to learn from each other
An experiment with skinks provides the first evidence of social learning in lizards.
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AnimalsHummingbirds evolved a strange taste for sugar
While other birds seem to lack the ability to taste sugar, hummingbirds detect sweetness using a repurposed sensor that normally responds to savory flavors.
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AnimalsOrcas and other animals may speak with complexity
From finches to orangutans, animal vocalizations may be more complex and not as distant from the structure of human language as previously thought.
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AnimalsOlinguito’s bio built by crowd-sourcing
Crowd-sourcing fleshes out the bio of little-known raccoon relative, the olinguito.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsNew subspecies of Philippine tarsier discovered
Genetic tests settle a taxonomic debate surrounding Philippine tarsier, one of the world’s smallest primates.
By Nsikan Akpan -
AnimalsZebra finches go mad with mercury, and other animal updates
Mercury exposure makes zebra finches bold and hyperactive, and additional research from the 2014 Animal Behavior Society Meeting.
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AnimalsDolphins and whales may squeal with pleasure too
Dolphins and whales squeal after a food reward in about the same time it takes for dopamine to be released in the brain.
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PhysicsCommon motion emerges in swarms of only 10 midges
A swarm of midges may start to fly as a collective group with as few as 10 individuals, a new study shows.
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AnimalsAboriginal lizard hunting boosts kangaroo numbers
An aboriginal technique for hunting lizards with fire in Western Australia feeds wallaroo populations.
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AnimalsNew dolphin species gets a name
A species of humpback dolphin from Australia has now received its proper name.