Paleontology
A mouth built for efficiency may have helped the earliest bird fly
A flexible tongue, sensitive beak and teethlike cones in the mouth may have helped Archaeopteryx generate enough energy to fly.
Animals
More Stories in Animals
- Animals
How tracking golden eagles in Nevada revealed a desert ‘death vortex’
Something is stopping Dry Lake Valley’s golden eagles from reproducing and killing raptors that fly in to fill the void.
- Animals
Some snakes lack the ‘hunger hormone.’ Experts are hungry to know why
The complex biology of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, has researchers wondering how its absence helps snakes last a long time with no food, if at all.
- Animals
A sea turtle boom may be hiding a population collapse
In Cape Verde, conservation has boosted the sea turtle population 100-fold — but the male-female balance is way off.
- Animals
A bonobo’s imaginary tea party suggests apes can play pretend
Apes, like humans, are capable of pretend play, challenging long-held views about how animals think, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Some dung beetles dig deep to keep their eggs cool
A temperate tunneling species of dung beetle seems capable of adapting to climate change, but their tropical cousins may be less resilient.
- Animals
These beetle larvae lure in bees by mimicking flowers
These parasitic beetle larvae lure in bees with complex floral aromas before hitching a ride back to their nests and eating their eggs.
- Animals
Canadian humpback whales thrive with a little help from their friends
Humpback whales are teaching each other a feeding technique called bubble netting, and it's helping a Canadian population recover from whaling.
- Animals
Spider silk-making organs evolved due to a 400-million-year-old genetic oops
An ancient ancestor of spiders and relatives doubled its genome about 400 million years ago, setting the stage for the evolution of spinnerets.
- Animals
Some vaccines are making progress in protecting vulnerable species
Vaccines can be a crucial conservation tool. But getting shots to wildlife, and developing them in the first place, is tough.
