Animals

Animals

Deer littermates have different dads

Twin fawns may not have the same dad—the first time multiple paternity has turned up in a large, free-ranging hoofed mammal.

Animals

Dragonfly Glitter

Dragonflies bring a lot of glitter to glamour shots. Texas A&M’s entomology program offers a variety of stunning images to illustrate the considerable diversity of dragonfly species. A video captures a female laying eggs, and a sequence of images shows how junior grows up. Go to: http://stephenville.tamu.edu/~fmitchel/dragonfly/index.html

Animals

Redder is healthier in squawking birds

When barn swallow nestlings open wide for food, their parents may be looking for the healthiest throats.

Animals

Why don’t racing horses fry their brains?

Lumpy sacs bulging out of a horse's auditory tubes may solve the mystery of how such an athletic animal keeps its brain from overheating during exercise.

Animals

Altruistic Sperm: Mouse gametes team up to power one winner

The sperm of wood mice hook together by the thousands to form high-speed teams racing toward an egg, even though only one of the pack will get the prize.

Animals

Pesticides Mess with Immunity: Double whammy promotes frog deformities

Agricultural pollutants may conspire with parasites to cause the epidemic of limb deformity that's sweeping through North America's frog populations.

Animals

Wasp Painting: Do insects know each other’s faces?

A researcher who dabbed tiny stripes on the faces and abdomens of paper wasps says that she's found the first evidence that the insects can recognize individuals by their markings.

Animals

Butterfly ears suggest a bat influence

Researchers have found the first bat-detecting ear in a butterfly and suggest that the threat of bats triggered the evolution of some moths into butterflies.

Animals

Oops. Woodpecker raps were actually gunshots

The knock-knock noises recorded last winter that raised hopes for rediscovering the long-lost ivory-billed woodpecker in Louisiana turn out to have been gunshots instead of bird noises.

Animals

Who’s on first with hummingbird bills

A survey of 166 hummingbird species links sex differences in bill length to sex differences in plumage and to breeding behavior.

Animals

Marine Mules: Near-sterile hyrids boost coral diversity

Reef corals that spawn in great mixed-up soups of many species may be maintaining their diversity because their hybrids are sterile mules.

Animals

Bay leaves may make rat nests nicer

Wood rats may be fumigating their nests with bits of California bay leaves, sprigs that killed flea larvae in lab tests.