Animals

Animals

Ants were among the world’s first farmers

50 years ago, researchers began unraveling the secrets to Attine ants’ green thumbs.

Earth

Dino-dooming asteroid impact created a chilling sulfur cloud

The Chicxulub impact spewed more sulfur than previously believed.

Animals

Great praise for categories, and seeing beyond them

Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill discusses classification and some of the challenges of putting species in categorical boxes.

Health & Medicine

Readers intrigued by ancient animals’ bones

Readers had questions about gut bacteria, woolly rhino ribs and ancient horses hooves.

Animals

This sea slug makes its prey do half the food catching

Nudibranchs’ stolen meals blur classic predator-prey levels.

Life

Hybrids reveal the barriers to successful mating between species

Scientists don’t understand the process of speciation, but hybrids can reveal the genes that keep species apart.

Animals

Scary as they are, few vampires have a backbone

Researchers speculate on why there are so few vampires among vertebrates.

Animals

Here’s the real story on jellyfish taking over the world

In 'Spineless,' a former marine scientist reconnects with the seas and science through her obsession with these enigmatic creatures.

Animals

Climate change may threaten these bamboo-eating lemurs

Longer dry spells and more nutrient-poor bamboo might eventually doom the greater bamboo lemur, a critically endangered species.

Paleontology

T. rex’s silly-looking arms were built for slashing

Tyrannosaurus rex may have used its small arms for slashing prey.

Life

Nanoscale glitches let flowers make a blue blur that bees can see

Bees learn about colorful floral rings faster when nanoscale arrays aren’t quite perfect.

Life

How bird feeders may be changing great tits’ beaks

Longer beaks may be evolving in U.K. great tits because of the widespread use of bird feeders in the country.