Animals
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AnimalsRetaking Flight: Some insects that didn’t use it didn’t lose it
Stick insects may have done what biologists once thought was impossible: lose something as complicated as a wing in the course of evolution but recover it millions of years later.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsStalking Larvae: How an ancient sea creature grows up
Scientists have finally observed living larvae of a sea lily, an ancient marine invertebrate related to starfish.
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AnimalsCamelid Comeback
The future of vicuñas in South America and wild camels in Asia hinges on decisions being made now about their management.
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AnimalsHoming Lobsters: Fancy navigation, for an invertebrate
Spiny lobsters are the first animals without backbones to pass tests for the orienteering power called true navigation.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsAnt Traffic Flow: Raiding swarms with few rules avoid gridlock
The 200,000 virtually blind army ants using a single trail to swarm out to a raid and return home with the booty naturally develop three traffic lanes, and a study now shows that simple individual behavior makes the pattern.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsAnt Traffic Flow: Raiding swarms with few rules avoid gridlock
The 200,000 virtually blind army ants using a single trail to swarm out to a raid and return home with the booty naturally develop three traffic lanes, and a study now shows that simple individual behavior makes the pattern.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsFrogs Play Tree: Male tunes his call to specific tree hole
Borneo's tree-hole frog may come as close to playing a musical instrument as any wild animal does. [With audio file.]
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsHawkmoths can still see colors at night
For the first time, scientists have found detailed evidence than an animal—a hawkmoth—can see color by starlight.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsMad Deer Disease?
Chronic wasting disease, once just an obscure brain ailment of deer and elk in a small patch of the West, is turning up in new places and raising troubling questions about risks.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsEar for Killers: Seals discern foes’ from neighbor-whales’ calls
Harbor seals eavesdrop on killer whales and can tell the harmless neighborhood fish eaters from roving gangs with a taste for fresh seal.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsTadpoles kill by supersuction
A high-speed video shows tiny African tadpoles that catch their prey in a manner unlike that used by any other frog larvae: by shooting out a tubular mouth for superfast suction.
By Susan Milius -
AnimalsLizard’s Choice: Mating test pits physique versus domain
When she decides to move in, is it him or is it his real estate?
By Susan Milius